{"entity":{"id":"klf4","kind":"target","name":"KLF4","aka":["KLF transcription factor 4","Krueppel-like factor 4"],"tldr":"KLF4 (Krueppel-like factor 4) is a protein that switches other genes on and off. The public catalogues list it as an oncogene driver, a tumour suppressor and a biomarker, and clinical evidence ties its variants to diagnosis, prognosis or drug response. Tied to Breast cancer, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Skin cancer and 3 more.","summary":"Transcription factor; can act both as activator and as repressor. Binds the 5'-CACCC-3' core sequence. Binds to the promoter region of its own gene and can activate its own transcription.\n\nCIViC holds 1 clinical evidence item and 0 assertions across 1 variant. Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.70 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 1.00, animal model 0.47, genetic association 0.57, somatic mutation 0.82). IntOGen calls it a driver in 5 cohorts (3 activating, 1 loss-of-function), covering Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, Invasive Breast Carcinoma, Hepatocellular Carcinoma.","asOf":"2026-09-23","links":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:6348","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:6348"},{"label":"UniProt O43474","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O43474/entry"},{"label":"NCBI Gene 9314","url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/9314"},{"label":"Ensembl ENSG00000136826","url":"https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000136826"}],"tags":["cancer-genes-wave"],"related":["civic","open-targets","intogen"],"cancers":["breast-cancer","hcc","skin-cancer","prostate","all-leukemia","melanoma"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":["Written by scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts from CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC and UniProt; the function text is UniProt's, condensed and in UK spelling. Roles: IntOGen calls it an activating (Act) driver in 3 cohorts; IntOGen calls it a loss-of-function (LoF) driver in 1 cohort; CIViC holds 1 clinical evidence items on its variants. Evidence tier \"clinical-evidence\" is the strongest of those signals.","Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"scripts/fetch-cancer-genes.ts (CIViC, Open Targets, IntOGen, HGNC, UniProt)","editedOn":"2026-09-23"},"symbol":"KLF4","role":["oncogene-driver","tumour-suppressor","biomarker"],"evidenceTier":"clinical-evidence","sources":[{"label":"HGNC HGNC:6348","url":"https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:6348","note":"approved symbol, name, aliases, locus and cross-references (hgnc_complete_set.txt)"},{"label":"UniProt O43474","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O43474/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene KLF4","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/7356","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases:  (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000136826","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000136826/associations","note":"association with cancer (MONDO_0004992) 0.70; per-cancer scores at or above 0.5: prostate cancer 0.50, melanoma 0.51, skin cancer 0.51, breast cancer 0.56 (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"IntOGen KLF4","url":"https://www.intogen.org/search?gene=KLF4","note":"driver in 5 cohorts (Act 3, LoF 1); Compendium_Cancer_Genes.tsv release 20240920, CC0 1.0"}],"specificity":"tumour-specific","distribution":"many-types","specificityNote":"Tumour-specific alteration: the catalogues call it an oncogene driver (IntOGen cohort analysis finds it activated more often than chance) and a tumour suppressor (IntOGen finds it knocked out more often than chance), so the direction differs between cohorts but the alteration is somatic either way; what a medicine would aim at or exploit is the altered form or its loss, absent from normal cells; no corpus medicine is aimed at it yet. HPA KLF4: RNA tissue enhanced (skin 1 186 nTPM); high antibody staining in 13 normal tissues; highest cancer staining head and neck cancer (2 of 4 high). Distribution: 5 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Breast cancer (all types), Hepatocellular carcinoma, Skin cancer (all types), Prostate cancer, Leukaemia); Open Targets associates it with 3 specific cancer types at or above 0.5 (breast carcinoma, cutaneous melanoma, prostate carcinoma). (Rule 6 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"UniProt O43474","url":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O43474/entry","note":"protein name, function text, keywords and locations (REST API)"},{"label":"CIViC gene KLF4","url":"https://civicdb.org/features/7356","note":"1 evidence items, 0 assertions, 1 variants; diseases:  (GraphQL API, CC0)"},{"label":"IntOGen KLF4","url":"https://www.intogen.org/search?gene=KLF4","note":"driver in 5 cohorts (Act 3, LoF 1); Compendium_Cancer_Genes.tsv release 20240920, CC0 1.0"},{"label":"Human Protein Atlas KLF4 tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000136826-KLF4/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000136826 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000136826/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:6348","ensembl":"ENSG00000136826","uniprot":"O43474","entrez":"9314","firstDescribed":1996,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Garrett-Sinha L.A. et al, 1996.","firstDescribedSource":"https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/O43474/entry","biology":"Transcription factor; can act both as activator and as repressor. Binds the 5'-CACCC-3' core sequence. Binds to the promoter region of its own gene and can activate its own transcription. Regulates the expression of key transcription factors during embryonic development. Plays an important role in maintaining embryonic stem cells, and in preventing their differentiation. Required for establishing the barrier function of the skin and for postnatal maturation and maintenance of the ocular surface. Location: Nucleus; Cytoplasm (UniProt). Locus 9q31.2 (HGNC).","whereFound":["Breast cancer: Open Targets association 0.56 with breast cancer (MONDO_0007254); IntOGen driver in 3 cohorts (BRCA)","Hepatocellular carcinoma: IntOGen driver in 1 cohort (HCC)","Skin cancer: Open Targets association 0.51 with skin cancer (MONDO_0002898)","Prostate cancer: Open Targets association 0.50 with prostate cancer (MONDO_0008315)","Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia: IntOGen driver in 1 cohort (ALL)","Melanoma: Open Targets association 0.51 with melanoma (MONDO_0005105)"],"targetClass":"transcription","prevalence":[]},"route":"/targets/klf4/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"civic","kind":"collection","name":"CIViC","route":"/collections/civic/"},{"id":"intogen","kind":"collection","name":"IntOGen","route":"/collections/intogen/"},{"id":"open-targets","kind":"collection","name":"Open Targets Platform","route":"/collections/open-targets/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"all-leukemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia","route":"/cancers/all-leukemia/"},{"id":"breast-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Breast cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/breast-cancer/"},{"id":"hcc","kind":"cancer","name":"Hepatocellular carcinoma","route":"/cancers/hcc/"},{"id":"melanoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Melanoma","route":"/cancers/melanoma/"},{"id":"prostate","kind":"cancer","name":"Prostate cancer","route":"/cancers/prostate/"},{"id":"skin-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Skin cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/skin-cancer/"}]}}