TCGA Barcodes (Sample Types)

The Cancer Genome Atlas Program (TCGA) is one of the cornerstones of cancer research. Every sample has a unique identifier, also known as barcode. A basic understanding of the naming convention is very helpful to quickly assess the 'type of sample' that you are working with.

The sample type is contained in the numerical part of the 4th element of a barcode, that can be up to 7 parts. Barcodes most commonly are composed of 4 parts, which is informative for most use cases.



Code Definition

1 Primary Solid Tumor
2 Recurrent Solid Tumor
3 Primary Blood Derived Cancer - Peripheral Blood
4 Recurrent Blood Derived Cancer - Bone Marrow
5 Additional - New Primary
6 Metastatic
7 Additional Metastatic
8 Human Tumor Original Cells
9 Primary Blood Derived Cancer - Bone Marrow
10 Blood Derived Normal
11 Solid Tissue Normal
12 Buccal Cell Normal
13 EBV Immortalized Normal
14 Bone Marrow Normal
15 sample type 15
16 sample type 16
20 Control Analyte
40 Recurrent Blood Derived Cancer - Peripheral Blood
50 Cell Lines
60 Primary Xenograft Tissue
61 Cell Line Derived Xenograft Tissue
99 sample type 99

Within the R2 platform, typically up to the 'sample' is included in the identifier. This enables you to assess the type of sample used (tunor / normal), and also allows linking of the samples for mulimodal (multi omics) analyses. Have a look at https://r2.amc.nl to select one of the TCGA tumor entities or the complete compendium. R2 also has a datascope where TCGA can be plotted right next to GTEx. 

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