TFTA

TFTA quantifies collective transcriptional activation of transcription factor target genes to detect and analyze altered transcription factor activity in cancer.

Key Features:

• Detection of Perturbed Regulators: Identifies transcription factors with altered activity in cancerous tissues compared to normal tissues.
• Large-Scale Application: Applied to 5,607 cancer samples across eleven different types of cancer to assess TF activity at scale.
• Comprehensive Catalogue Creation: Produces a catalogue detailing altered transcription factor activities across multiple cancers.
• Association with Patient Survival: Reveals associations between specific TF activities and patient survival outcomes.
• Identification of Prognostic TFs: Detects transcription factors whose activity remains relatively unchanged between cancer and normal tissues but correlates with prognosis.
• Personalized TF Activity Estimates: Provides per-patient estimates of transcription factor activity for individualized analysis.

Scientific Applications:

• Cancer Research and Diagnosis: Characterizes TF regulatory perturbations to inform molecular understanding and potential diagnostic markers.
• Therapeutic Target Identification: Prioritizes transcription factors with prognostic relevance as candidate therapeutic targets.
• Personalized Treatment Strategies: Supports individualized molecular profiling by supplying patient-specific TF activity estimates.

Methodology:

Quantifies the collective transcriptional activation of target genes regulated by specific transcription factors and leverages large-scale cancer datasets to detect TF activity changes that may be subtle relative to traditional gene expression analyses.