Regulation of phenotypic switching

Across TCGA pan-cancer cohorts, RNA activity of the Regulation of phenotypic switching pathway differs between tumor and matched normal tissue in 13 of the 18 cancer types tested.

The strongest signal is observed in kidney chromophobe (KICH), where pathway activity is higher in tumor tissue than in matched normal tissue. In most cancer types, this pathway shows higher activity in tumors, although a few cancer types, such as KIRC and STAD, show the opposite pattern, with lower activity in tumor tissue.

KICH, THCA, and LUAD show the most reproducible tumor–normal differences in pathway activity.

Tumor vs normal pathway activity by lineage

Ranked by sampling consensus. Activity change represents the tumor-versus-normal difference in pathway activity on a log₂ scale. Positive values indicate higher pathway activity in tumor tissue. The reported p-values are derived from the corresponding differential activity tests.

Lineage	Gender	Stage	Activity change	p	Sampling consensus
KICH	All	III,IV	+0.188	<.001	11	view →
THCA	Female	III,IV	+0.155	<.001	10	view →
LUAD	Male	All	+0.120	<.001	10	view →
LUSC	All	II,III,IV	+0.286	<.001	8	view →
HNSC	Male	All	+0.206	<.001	8	view →
LIHC	Female	II,III,IV	+0.141	<.001	8	view →
BRCA	All	III,IV	+0.289	<.001	6	view →
UCEC	All	All	+0.131	<.001	6	view →
KIRC	All	II,III,IV	−0.048	.005	6	view →
COAD	Female	II,III,IV	+0.122	.001	4	view →
STAD	Female	III,IV	−0.255	.009	3	view →
CHOL	All	All	+0.159	<.001	2	view →

Pink = more active in tumor, green = less active in tumor. Showing the 12 strongest of 13 lineages.

GO:1900239–KICH

Open the KICH breakdown →