# BCL9L

Source: https://onco.cc/targets/bcl9l/  
OnCo record `bcl9l` (Target). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

BCL9L (B-cell CLL/lymphoma 9-like protein) is a gene whose normal job is to hold cell growth in check. The public catalogues list it as a tumour suppressor, and it is called a cancer driver by mutation analysis of patient cohorts. Tied to Colorectal cancer, Skin cancer, Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer and 1 more.

## Summary

Transcriptional regulator that acts as an activator. Promotes beta-catenin transcriptional activity. Plays a role in tumorigenesis.

Open Targets scores its association with cancer at 0.73 (direct and indirect evidence; datatypes literature 0.96, genetic association 0.00, somatic mutation 0.94). IntOGen calls it a driver in 4 cohorts (0 activating, 4 loss-of-function), covering Colon Adenocarcinoma, Colorectal Adenocarcinoma.

## Fields

- Kind: Target
- Last checked: 2026-09-23
- Also known as: BCL9 like; B-cell CLL/lymphoma 9-like protein; DLNB11; B9L; Bcl9-2
- Tags: cancer-genes-wave
- Symbol: BCL9L
- Class: tumor-suppressor
- Biology: Transcriptional regulator that acts as an activator. Promotes beta-catenin transcriptional activity. Plays a role in tumorigenesis. Enhances the neoplastic transforming activity of CTNNB1. Location: Nucleus (UniProt). Locus 11q23.3 (HGNC).
- Where found: Colorectal cancer: Open Targets association 0.66 with colorectal cancer (MONDO_0005575); IntOGen driver in 4 cohorts (COAD, COADREAD); Skin cancer: Open Targets association 0.56 with skin cancer (MONDO_0002898); Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer: Open Targets association 0.52 with gastric cancer (MONDO_0001056); Melanoma: Open Targets association 0.56 with melanoma (MONDO_0005105)

## 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 a loss-of-function (LoF) driver in 4 cohorts. Evidence tier "cohort-driver" is the strongest of those signals.
- Prevalence not recorded: none of the sources gives a positivity rate.

## Sources

- HGNC HGNC:23688: https://www.genenames.org/data/gene-symbol-report/#!/hgnc_id/HGNC:23688
- UniProt Q86UU0: https://www.uniprot.org/uniprotkb/Q86UU0/entry
- NCBI Gene 283149: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/283149
- Ensembl ENSG00000186174: https://www.ensembl.org/Homo_sapiens/Gene/Summary?g=ENSG00000186174

## Connected records

- collections: [IntOGen](https://onco.cc/collections/intogen/), [Open Targets Platform](https://onco.cc/collections/open-targets/)
- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gastric/), [Melanoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/melanoma/), [Skin cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/skin-cancer/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/bcl9l.json