Molecular Characterization Initiative (MCI)
The Molecular Characterization Initiative (MCI) is a component of the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI). It offers state-of-the-art molecular testing at no cost to newly diagnosed children, adolescents, and young adults (AYAs) with central nervous system (CNS) tumors, soft tissue sarcomas (STS), certain rare childhood cancers (RAR), and certain neuroblastomas (NBL) treated at a Children’s Oncology Group (COG)–affiliated hospital. The goal of MCI is to enhance the understanding of genetic factors in pediatric cancers and to provide timely, clinically relevant findings to doctors and families to aid in treatment decisions and determine eligibility for certain planned COG clinical trials. Please see the DICOM converted whole slide hematoxylin and eosin stained images from the Molecular Characterization Initiative of the National Cancer Institute's Childhood Cancer Data Initiative information page to learn more about the images and any supporting metadata for this collection, and to learn about attribution/citation requirements.
Can it answer your research question?
1 of 6 supportedOverall survival
LimitedVital status is informative for 26% of cases, but too few events or no time to event.API
Progression or recurrence
Not supportedprogression_or_recurrenceis informative for no case in the harmonized records.APITreatment response
Not supportedtreatment_outcomeis populated for no case in the harmonized records.APIWhich drug was given
Not supportedtherapeutic_agentsis recorded for no case in the harmonized records.APIStage-adjusted modelling
Not supportedajcc_pathologic_stageis informative for no case in the harmonized records.APIAnalysis by race or ethnicity
SupportedRace is informative for 70% of cases.API
At a glance
Every percentage is the repository’s own record of what is filled inSubjectCALC
As filed by the repository
Who is in the cohortAPI
- Sex1,656 male · 1,420 female · 1,331 no value recorded
- Race1,616 white · 333 black or african american · 143 asian · 63 2 other · 919 unknown · 2 not reported · 1,331 no value recorded
- Ethnicity576 hispanic or latino · 2,500 not reported · 1,331 no value recorded
- Vital status726 alive · 82 dead · 2,268 not reported · 1,331 no value recorded
Age at diagnosis
What was measured, and on how many
- DICOM medical imaging4,407 of 4,407 · 100%
- Whole exome sequencing3,040 of 4,407 · 69%
- DNA methylation array2,765 of 4,407 · 63%
How complete all 29 clinical fields are - 4 informative for at least 80% of cases
Outcome
Follow-up
Treatment
Diagnosis
Demographics
Access
Data Access Request through dbGaP using an eRA Commons account; institutional signing official approval required
- Open components
- 11,334 open-access files
- Controlled components
- 39,964 controlled-access files
- Typical turnaround
- days to a few weeks after signing official approval
- License
- NIH Genomic Data Sharing Policy terms
- Citation requirement
- Cite the dataset accession and the program's publication guidelines; see the GDC publication policy.
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.
What articles did with it
- Mentioned the dataset2
- Accession found in text0
- Declared using it0
- Analyzed the data1
Against comparable datasets
- Analyzed it1
- Expected~0.1
METHODS:"phs002790"), so every dataset in the corpus is counted the same way and the numbers can be compared. The 2 articles listed below were retrieved and graded one at a time, and an article counts as having analyzed the data wherever the accession sits in the analysis - methods, results, tables, figures or supplement - under any of this dataset’s accessions. Read the list as the evidence about these articles, and the count as the number that is comparable across datasets.- Reuse is within the expected range for comparable datasets (index +0.82).
Possible original publication, unverified
Articles that analyzed the data
Community examples
Share your exampleAnalyses 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
GDC: list open files and download thempython
import json, requests
PROJECT = "CCDI-MCI"
filters = {"op": "and", "content": [
{"op": "in", "content": {"field": "cases.project.project_id", "value": [PROJECT]}},
{"op": "in", "content": {"field": "access", "value": ["open"]}},
]}
params = {"filters": json.dumps(filters),
"fields": "file_id,file_name,data_category,data_type,file_size",
"size": "10000", "format": "JSON"}
files = requests.get("https://api.gdc.cancer.gov/files", params=params, timeout=60).json()["data"]["hits"]
print(len(files), "open files")
# Write a manifest and fetch with the GDC client (https://gdc.cancer.gov/access-data/gdc-data-transfer-tool)
with open("manifest.txt", "w") as fh:
fh.write("id\n" + "\n".join(f["file_id"] for f in files))
# $ gdc-client download -m manifest.txtGDC: clinical table for every casepython
import json, requests
filters = {"op": "in", "content": {"field": "project.project_id", "value": ["CCDI-MCI"]}}
params = {"filters": json.dumps(filters), "size": "5000", "format": "TSV",
"fields": ",".join([
"submitter_id", "demographic.vital_status", "demographic.days_to_death",
"diagnoses.days_to_last_follow_up", "diagnoses.ajcc_pathologic_stage",
"diagnoses.treatments.treatment_type", "diagnoses.treatments.treatment_outcome"])}
tsv = requests.get("https://api.gdc.cancer.gov/cases", params=params, timeout=60).text
open("CCDI-MCI_clinical.tsv", "w").write(tsv)IDC: pull the DICOM collection with idc-indexpython
from idc_index import IDCClient
COLLECTION = "ccdi_mci"
client = IDCClient()
series = client.index[client.index["collection_id"] == COLLECTION] # one row per DICOM series
print(len(series), "series,", series["PatientID"].nunique(), "patients,",
round(series["series_size_MB"].sum() / 1024, 1), "GB")
print(series["Modality"].value_counts().to_dict())
# Everything above is an index lookup and costs nothing. Uncomment to pull the pixels;
# the client refuses up front if the disk cannot hold them.
# client.download_from_selection(collection_id=COLLECTION, downloadDir="./ccdi_mci")This page as data: limitations firstbash
curl -s https://cd2s.vercel.app/data/datasets/gdc-ccdi-mci.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
- Open the project in the GDC Data PortalFor people
Check the portal's current case and file counts before requesting anything; the cohort can change after this record was built.
https://portal.gdc.cancer.gov/projects/CCDI-MCI - Download the open files without an accountFor people
11,334 open-access files are marked open access. Add them to a portal cart, export a manifest, and fetch it with the GDC Data Transfer Tool.
https://gdc.cancer.gov/access-data/gdc-data-transfer-toolgdc-client download -m gdc_manifest.txt - Request controlled access through dbGaPFor people
39,964 controlled-access files require an approved data access request. The request starts at dbGaP, not in the portal. The relevant study is phs002790.
https://gdc.cancer.gov/access-data/obtaining-access-controlled-data - Download controlled files with your tokenFor people
An approved request yields a token. The same manifest fetches nothing controlled without it.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs002790gdc-client download -m gdc_manifest.txt -t gdc-user-token.txt - Query the project from code, with no credentialsFor agents
The file index is public even where files are not, so an agent can size the cohort before anyone requests access.
https://docs.gdc.cancer.gov/API/Users_Guide/Getting_Started/curl -s 'https://api.gdc.cancer.gov/files' --get \ --data-urlencode 'filters={"op":"in","content":{"field":"cases.project.project_id","value":["CCDI-MCI"]}}' \ --data-urlencode 'fields=file_id,file_name,data_type' \ --data-urlencode 'size=10000' --data-urlencode 'format=TSV' - Pass the token when the agent needs controlled filesFor agents
Without a token, an API query may return only the open subset. Compare returned counts with the record before treating them as the whole cohort.
https://docs.gdc.cancer.gov/API/Users_Guide/Getting_Started/curl -H "X-Auth-Token: $GDC_TOKEN" https://api.gdc.cancer.gov/data/<file_id>
Provenance
All of it, and more, is in this record’s JSON.
Identifiers
Versions and verification
- Released
- 1 Jan 2026
- Metadata retrieved
- 18 Sept 2026
- Review status
- Machine-extracted
- Data generation funding
- Funded data generation
Funding
Funded reuse of these data
- T32CA060441Lab Research Training in Pediatric Oncology-HematologyALAN D FRIEDMAN, DONALD SMALLAPI
- R21CA267515Preventing Therapeutic Resistance in RAS-mutated Pediatric CancersRobert KortumAPI
- R01CA255232Isoform-specific signaling as a determinant of RAS-driven oncogenesisRobert KortumAPI
- R01CA223495A HTS Approach to Discover Guanine Nucleotide-Competitive Inhibitors of Oncogenic KRASKENT ROSSMANAPI