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Datasets/TCGA-DLBC

Lymphoid Neoplasm Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

MixedMachine-extracted
TCGAAvailable from GDC and IDC

Please see the DICOM converted Slide Microscopy images for the TCGA-DLBC collection page to learn more about the histopathology images and to obtain any supporting metadata for this collection.

Can it answer your research question?

3 of 6 supported
  • Overall survival

    Limited

    Vital status is informative for 83% of cases, but too few events or no time to event.API

  • Progression or recurrence

    Limited

    progression_or_recurrence is informative for 21% of cases.API

  • Treatment response

    Supported

    disease_response is populated for 83% of cases; criteria: complete response, stable disease.API

  • Which drug was given

    Supported

    therapeutic_agents is recorded for 74% of cases.API

  • Stage-adjusted modelling

    Not supported

    ajcc_pathologic_stage is informative for no case in the harmonized records.API

  • Analysis by race or ethnicity

    Supported

    Race is informative for 83% 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
CasesAPI2
58
Measurement types
11
3,174 files, 27 TB
Follow-upAPI
2.2 years
for 48 of 58 cases; no survival endpoint
Treatment responseAPI
Recorded
complete response, stable disease, treatment ongoing

SubjectCALC

Lymphoid

As filed by the repository

Not ReportedMature B-Cell LymphomasBones, joints and articular cartilage of other and unspecified sitesBrainBreastColonConnective, subcutaneous and other soft tissuesHeart, mediastinum, and pleuraHematopoietic and reticuloendothelial systemsLymph nodesOther and unspecified major salivary glandsRetroperitoneum and peritoneum

Who is in the cohortAPI

A usable value“Not reported” or “unknown”No value recorded
  • Sex26 female · 22 male · 10 no value recorded
  • Race29 white · 18 asian · 1 black or african american · 10 no value recorded
  • Ethnicity36 not hispanic or latino · 12 hispanic or latino · 10 no value recorded
  • Vital status39 alive · 9 dead · 10 no value recorded

Age at diagnosis

Median 59, middle half 46–69, range 23–83 years across 48 cases.

What was measured, and on how many

11 measurement types, 1 covering the whole cohort.

  • Clinical58 of 58 · 100%
  • SNP genotyping array (copy number, germline)50 of 58 · 86%
  • Bulk RNA sequencing48 of 58 · 83%
  • Whole exome sequencing48 of 58 · 83%
  • DNA methylation array48 of 58 · 83%
  • DICOM medical imaging48 of 58 · 83%
  • microRNA sequencing47 of 58 · 81%
  • Whole-slide tissue images46 of 58 · 79%
  • Whole genome sequencing42 of 58 · 72%
  • Somatic Structural Variation42 of 58 · 72%
  • Reverse phase protein array33 of 58 · 57%
Platform, files and data levels
AssayPlatformFilesLevels
ClinicalAPI-102-
SNP genotyping array (copy number, germline)APIillumina631-
Bulk RNA sequencingAPIillumina432-
Whole exome sequencingAPIillumina728-
DNA methylation arrayAPIillumina144-
DICOM medical imagingAPI--DICOM series
microRNA sequencingAPIillumina141-
Whole-slide tissue imagesAPIillumina59-
Whole genome sequencingAPIillumina744-
Somatic Structural VariationAPI-189-
Reverse phase protein arrayAPIillumina33-
How complete all 29 clinical fields are - 15 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

  • Vital statusAPI83%
  • Cause of deathAPI0%
  • Progression or recurrenceAPI0%
  • Last known disease statusAPI0%

Follow-up

  • Disease response at follow-up1:nAPI83%
  • ECOG performance statusAPI53%
  • Progression at follow-upAPI21%

Treatment

  • Prior treatment1:nAPI83%
  • Treatment type1:nAPI83%
  • Treatment given1:nAPI83%
  • Therapeutic agents1:nAPI74%
  • Regimen or line of therapy1:nAPI72%
  • Treatment outcomeAPI19%

Staging

  • AJCC pathologic stageAPI0%
  • AJCC clinical stageAPI0%

Diagnosis

  • Primary diagnosis1:nAPI83%
  • Tissue or organ of origin1:nAPI83%
  • Prior malignancyAPI83%
  • Synchronous malignancyAPI83%

Pathology

  • Morphology (ICD-O)1:nAPI83%
  • Classification of tumor1:nAPI83%
  • Tumor gradeAPI0%

Demographics

  • Sex at birthAPI83%
  • RaceAPI83%
  • EthnicityAPI83%
  • Country of residenceAPI83%
  • Population groupAPI0%

Exposure

  • Tobacco smoking statusAPI0%
  • Alcohol historyAPI0%

Access

MixedSome components are open; others need approval.API

Data Access Request through dbGaP using an eRA Commons account; institutional signing official approval required

Open components
1,232 open-access files
Controlled components
1,942 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.

Analyzed the dataCALC2
83
accession in the methods; 100% of a 29-article sample really cited it
Declared using it
13
named in a data availability statement
Cited the paper
-
attention to the publication, not reuse of the data
Against expectation
As expected or above
about 51 articles expected; index 0.70

What articles did with it

Only the last row counts as reuse. Where the accession appears in an article tells us what the authors did with the data.

  • Mentioned the dataset2
  • Accession found in text0
  • Declared using it13
  • Analyzed the data83

Against comparable datasets

83 articles analyzed these data. About 51 would be expected. The expectation comes from a model of size, age, breadth and access tier.

  • Analyzed it83
  • Expected~51
Reuse assessment
  • Reuse is within the expected range for comparable datasets (index +0.70).

Compared against 132 datasets in this corpus with a citable accession and sufficient metadata. See Methods for the model.

Articles that analyzed the data

Examples, not the full list. 70 articles matching this dataset's accession search were retrieved and graded individually; these are the strongest of those.

Deep-review sample: author overlap and funding were checked only for the 10 articles listed here, not for every article examined. Of the 10 that analyzed the data, author overlap with the generating team could not be checked for any of them, and 0 of the 10 we could check were themselves NCI-funded. These are sample counts, not population estimates.

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

GDC: list open files and download thempython

Open-access files need no account. Controlled files need an approved dbGaP request and a token passed to gdc-client.

import json, requests

PROJECT = "TCGA-DLBC"
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.txt
GDC: clinical table for every casepython
import json, requests

filters = {"op": "in", "content": {"field": "project.project_id", "value": ["TCGA-DLBC"]}}
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("TCGA-DLBC_clinical.tsv", "w").write(tsv)
IDC: pull the DICOM collection with idc-indexpython

pip install idc-index. Images are public; the package uses s5cmd under the hood.

from idc_index import IDCClient

COLLECTION = "tcga_dlbc"
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="./tcga_dlbc")
This page as data: limitations firstbash
curl -s https://cd2s.vercel.app/data/datasets/gdc-tcga-dlbc.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 project in the GDC Data PortalFor people5 minutes

    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/TCGA-DLBC

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

  2. 2
    Download the open files without an accountFor peopleminutes to hours, by cohort size

    1,232 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.

    gdc-client download -m gdc_manifest.txt
    https://gdc.cancer.gov/access-data/gdc-data-transfer-tool

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

  3. 3
    Request controlled access through dbGaPFor peopledays to a few weeks after signing official approval

    1,942 controlled-access files require an approved data access request. The request starts at dbGaP, not in the portal. The relevant study is phs000178.

    Requires: eRA Commons account, institutional signing official approval, dbGaP data access request for phs000178

    https://gdc.cancer.gov/access-data/obtaining-access-controlled-data

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

  4. 4
    Download controlled files with your tokenFor people

    An approved request yields a token. The same manifest fetches nothing controlled without it.

    Requires: approved dbGaP request, GDC authentication token

    gdc-client download -m gdc_manifest.txt -t gdc-user-token.txt
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/projects/gap/cgi-bin/study.cgi?study_id=phs000178

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

  5. 5
    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.

    curl -s 'https://api.gdc.cancer.gov/files' --get \
      --data-urlencode 'filters={"op":"in","content":{"field":"cases.project.project_id","value":["TCGA-DLBC"]}}' \
      --data-urlencode 'fields=file_id,file_name,data_type' \
      --data-urlencode 'size=10000' --data-urlencode 'format=TSV'
    https://docs.gdc.cancer.gov/API/Users_Guide/Getting_Started/

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

  6. 6
    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.

    Requires: GDC authentication token

    curl -H "X-Auth-Token: $GDC_TOKEN" https://api.gdc.cancer.gov/data/<file_id>
    https://docs.gdc.cancer.gov/API/Users_Guide/Getting_Started/

    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

Released
1 Jan 2018
Metadata retrieved
18 Sept 2026
Review status
Machine-extracted
Data generation funding
Funded data generation

For softwarerecord JSON