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Datasets/msk_met_2021

MSK MetTropism (MSK, Cell 2021)

OpenMachine-extracted
Investigator-initiated cohort (harmonized in cBioPortal)Available from cBioPortal

MSK-MET (Memorial Sloan Kettering - Metastatic Events and Tropisms) is a pan-cancer cohort of tumor genomic and clinical outcome data from 25,000 patients. The dataset identifies associations between tumor genomic alterations and patterns of metastatic dissemination across 50 tumor types; showing that chromosomal instability is strongly correlated with metastatic burden in some tumor types, like prostate and lung adenocarcinomas and HR+/HER2+ breast ductal carcinoma, but not in others, such as colorectal MSS, pancreatic adenocarcinoma and high-grade serous ovarian cancer. The study also identifies somatic alterations associated with increased metastatic burden and routes of metastatic spread. Our data offers a resource for the investigation of the biologic basis for metastatic spread and highlights the role of chromosomal instability in cancer progression. This data is available under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

Can it answer your research question?

2 of 6 supported
  • Overall survival

    Supported

    Vital status and time are populated; median follow-up 1.4 years; 25,659 cases with follow-up; endpoint: overall survival.API

  • Progression or recurrence

    Not measured

    This field was not among those probed for this repository.

  • Treatment response

    Not supported

    No treatment response is recorded in the harmonized records.API

  • Which drug was given

    Not measured

    This field was not among those probed for this repository.

  • Stage-adjusted modelling

    Not measured

    This field was not among those probed for this repository.

  • Analysis by race or ethnicity

    Supported

    RACE is informative for 94% of cases.API

Judged from the repository’s own field completeness (thresholds). “Not measured” means we have not probed that field for this record, not that the data lack it.

At a glance

Every percentage is the repository’s own record of what is filled in
CasesAPI
25,775
25,775 samples
Measurement types
3
Follow-upAPI
17.4 months
for 25,659 of 25,775 cases; overall survival
Treatment responseAPI
Not recorded

SubjectCALC

Pan-cancer

As filed by the repository

Mixed Cancer Typesother

Who is in the cohortAPI

A usable value“Not reported” or “unknown”No value recorded
  • Sex13,485 Female · 12,286 Male · 4 no value recorded
  • Race20,263 White · 1,787 Asian-far east/indian subcont · 1,597 Black or african american · 641 3 other · 903 Pt refused to answer · 396 No value entered · 111 Unknown · 77 no value recorded
  • Vital status15,606 LIVING · 10,169 DECEASED

What was measured, and on how many

3 measurement types, 2 covering the whole cohort.

  • Mutation calls (panel, exome or genome)25,775 of 25,775 samples · 100%
  • Copy number alterations25,775 of 25,775 samples · 100%
  • Structural variants / fusionscount not published
Platform, files and data levels
AssayPlatformFilesLevels
Mutation calls (panel, exome or genome)API--processed matrix
Copy number alterationsAPI--processed matrix
Structural variants / fusionsAPI-5,410-
How complete all 6 clinical fields are - 6 informative for at least 80% of cases

A field counts as informative only when it holds a real value. “Not reported” blocks an analysis just as a missing field does. Fields marked 1:n can hold several records per case, so they show the share of cases with any record.

Informative - a usable valuePresent but uninformative - “not reported” or “unknown”Absent - no value recorded

Outcome

  • Overall Survival StatusAPI100%

Follow-up

  • Overall Survival (Months)API>99%

Diagnosis

  • Oncotree CodeAPI100%
  • Primary Tumor SiteAPI>99%

Demographics

Access

OpenDownload without an account.API

Processed data download from the cBioPortal study page or its public REST API; no account required. Primary raw data remain wherever the original investigators deposited them.

Open components
harmonized mutation, copy-number, expression and clinical files
License
Per-study terms; cBioPortal asks that the original study be cited
Citation requirement
Cite the original publication, and cite cBioPortal if the portal's harmonized files were used.

What it is good for

Written and checked by a reviewer, not generated from metadata.

No reviewed research questions yet. The measurements and field completeness above are machine-extracted and still useful for judging fit.

What it cannot tell you

Written by a reviewer against the source, not inferred from what is missing.

No reviewed limitations yet. Check the field completeness chart above before committing to an analysis. Low coverage on an endpoint you need is the most common blocker.

Who has used it

Articles that analyzed these data, counted separately from articles that only cited the paper. Only the first counts as reuse.

Analyzed the dataCALC
-
could not be measured for this dataset
Declared using it
-
named in a data availability statement
Cited the paper
559
attention to the publication, not reuse of the data
Against expectation
Not assessed
Reuse cannot be traced for this dataset
No accession is specific enough to search the literature for, so we cannot tell how often these data have been reused. That is a limit of the measurement, not a finding about the dataset. It is also a barrier in itself: a researcher cannot find prior work to build on.
Reuse assessment
  • Not assessed: this dataset has no accession specific enough for citation-based reuse tracing, so a shortfall cannot be measured.

Compared against rgi-huber-v2. See Methods for the model.

Original publication

Articles that analyzed the data

Not searchable. See the note above.

Community examples

Share your example

Analyses someone ran on these data end to end, each with a receipt recording when it ran, against which packages and for how long.

Nobody has shared an analysis of this dataset yet. The examples on other datasets cover the common patterns and can be adapted - and if you adapt one, it belongs here.

Start here

Starter code generated from this record’s own identifiers, then the access steps.

Get the data in code

cBioPortal: clinical data and the full study bundlepython
import requests, pandas as pd

STUDY = "msk_met_2021"
base = "https://www.cbioportal.org/api"
clin = requests.get(f"{base}/studies/{STUDY}/clinical-data",
                    params={"clinicalDataType": "PATIENT", "projection": "SUMMARY"}, timeout=60).json()
patients = pd.DataFrame(clin).pivot_table(index="patientId", columns="clinicalAttributeId",
                                          values="value", aggfunc="first")
print(patients.shape)
profiles = requests.get(f"{base}/studies/{STUDY}/molecular-profiles", timeout=60).json()
print([p["molecularProfileId"] for p in profiles])
# Whole study as flat files: https://cbioportal-datahub.s3.amazonaws.com/msk_met_2021.tar.gz
This page as data: limitations firstbash
curl -s https://cd2s.vercel.app/data/datasets/cbio-msk-met-2021.json | python3 -c '
import json, sys
r = json.load(sys.stdin)
for l in r["limitations"]:
    print(l["severity"].upper(), "-", l["statement"][:120])
print("survival endpoint:", r["longitudinal"]["has_survival_endpoint"], "| treatment response:", r["longitudinal"]["has_treatment_response"])'

Access steps

  1. 1
    Open the study in cBioPortalFor people5 minutes

    Harmonized molecular and clinical files are open. Cite the original publication, and cite cBioPortal if the portal's harmonized files were used.

    https://www.cbioportal.org/study/summary?id=msk_met_2021

    Generated from repository policy. Check the linked policy before downloading.

  2. 2
    Download the whole study as a zipFor peopleminutes

    The datasets page carries the staging files used by the portal.

    https://www.cbioportal.org/datasets

    Generated from repository policy. Check the linked policy before downloading.

  3. 3
    Or pull the staging files with git-lfsFor people

    Study folders are named by study id under public/.

    git clone https://github.com/cBioPortal/datahub.git && cd datahub
    git -c lfs.fetchexclude="" lfs pull -I public/msk_met_2021
    https://github.com/cBioPortal/datahub

    Generated from repository policy. Check the linked policy before downloading.

  4. 4
    Read the study straight from the REST APIFor agents

    No key is required; pace requests when sweeping many studies.

    curl -s 'https://www.cbioportal.org/api/studies/msk_met_2021/clinical-data?clinicalDataType=PATIENT&projection=SUMMARY'
    https://docs.cbioportal.org/web-api-and-clients/

    Generated from repository policy. Check the linked policy before downloading.

Provenance

All of it, and more, is in this record’s JSON.

Identifiers

Versions and verification

Metadata retrieved
18 Sept 2026
Review status
Machine-extracted
Data generation funding
Funded data generation

Funding

Awards resolved through NIH RePORTER. Awards that paid to generate these data are listed apart from awards that paid to reuse them. Both are returns on NCI investment, but different ones.

Funded data generation

  • U01CA252048Understanding and targeting MAPK pathway activation in NF1-deficient malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST)Ping ChiFY2021-2025API
  • R37CA266185Mechanisms of Dynamic Transcriptional Reprogramming in Metastasis Stem CellsKaruna GaneshFY2022-2026API
  • R01CA256188Probing cytosolic nucleic acid sensing pathways in cancerAshley Marie Laughney, Samuel F BakhoumFY2021-2025API
  • R01CA234361Defining mechanisms of resistance to hormonal therapy in breast cancerSarat Chandarlapaty, David B. SolitFY2019-2023API
  • R01CA228216Epigenetic mechanisms of transcriptional activation of a novel oncogenic ALK variant in cancerPing ChiFY2018-2022API
  • P50CA247749MSK SPORE in Genomic Instability in Breast CancerSimon N. Powell, Sohrab P ShahFY2023-2025API
  • P50CA221745Biospecimen Repository CoreHikmat Al-Ahmadie, David B. SolitFY2024API
  • P50CA217694Project 3: Identifying Targetable Epigenetic and Immuno-Oncologic Vulnerabilities in Synovial SarcomaMarc Ladanyi, SAMUEL SINGERFY2023-2025API
  • P50CA140146Biostatistics/Bioinformatics CoreLi-Xuan Qin, SAMUEL SINGERFY2010-2014API
  • P30CA008748Antitumor AssessmentElisa de Stanchina, FRANCESCA M GANYFY2025-2026API

and 1 more

For softwarerecord JSON