Kidney Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma
The Cancer Imaging Program (CIP) is working directly with primary investigators from institutes participating in TCGA to obtain and load images relating to the genomic, clinical, and pathological data being stored within the TCGA Data Portal. Currently this large CT and MR multi-sequence image collection of kidney renal clear cell carcinoma (KIRC) patients can be matched by each unique case identifier with the extensive gene and expression data of the same case from The Cancer Genome Atlas Data Portal to research the link between clinical phenome and tissue genome. Please see the TCGA -KIRC page to learn more about the radiology images and to obtain any supporting metadata for this collection. Please see the DICOM converted Slide Microscopy images for the TCGA-KIRC collection page to learn more about the histopathology images and to obtain any supporting metadata for this collection.
Can it answer your research question?
5 of 6 supportedOverall survival
SupportedVital status and time are populated; median follow-up 3.2 years; 537 cases with follow-up; endpoints: overall survival, progression-free interval.API
Progression or recurrence
SupportedA time to event is derivable: progression-free interval;
progression_or_recurrenceis informative for 24% of cases.APITreatment response
Supporteddisease_responseis populated for 96% of cases; criteria: complete response, partial response.APIWhich drug was given
Limitedtherapeutic_agentsis recorded for 19% of cases.APIStage-adjusted modelling
Supportedajcc_pathologic_stageis informative for 99% of cases.APIAnalysis by race or ethnicity
SupportedRace is informative for 99% 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
- Sex346 male · 191 female
- Race466 white · 56 black or african american · 8 asian · 7 not reported
- Ethnicity359 not hispanic or latino · 26 hispanic or latino · 152 not reported
- Vital status360 alive · 177 dead
Age at diagnosis
What was measured, and on how many
- Clinical537 of 537 · 100%
- DICOM medical imaging537 of 537 · 100%
- DNA methylation array535 of 537 · >99%
- SNP genotyping array (copy number, germline)534 of 537 · >99%
- Bulk RNA sequencing533 of 537 · >99%
- microRNA sequencing516 of 537 · 96%
- Whole-slide diagnostic images513 of 537 · 96%
- Whole genome sequencing504 of 537 · 94%
- Reverse phase protein array478 of 537 · 89%
- Somatic Structural Variation458 of 537 · 85%
- Whole exome sequencing389 of 537 · 72%
- ATAC sequencing (chromatin accessibility)16 of 537 · 3%
Platform, files and data levels
| Assay | Platform | Files | Levels |
|---|---|---|---|
| ClinicalAPI2 | - | 1,165 | - |
| DICOM medical imagingAPI | - | - | DICOM series |
| DNA methylation arrayAPI | illumina | 2,709 | - |
| SNP genotyping array (copy number, germline)API | illumina | 7,243 | - |
| Bulk RNA sequencingAPI | illumina | 5,526 | - |
| microRNA sequencingAPI | illumina | 1,848 | - |
| Whole-slide diagnostic imagesAPI2 | illumina | 519 | - |
| Whole genome sequencingAPI2 | illumina | 6,005 | - |
| Reverse phase protein arrayAPI | illumina | 478 | - |
| Somatic Structural VariationAPI | - | 1,326 | - |
| Whole exome sequencingAPI | illumina | 6,784 | - |
| ATAC sequencing (chromatin accessibility)API | illumina | 16 | - |
How complete all 29 clinical fields are - 13 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
- 15,306 open-access files
- Controlled components
- 19,725 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
- Cited the paper2,845
- Mentioned the dataset132
- Accession found in text0
- Declared using it141
- Analyzed the data1,245
Against comparable datasets
- Analyzed it1,245
- Expected~315
- Reuse is within the expected range for comparable datasets (index +1.98).
Original publication
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 = "TCGA-KIRC"
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": ["TCGA-KIRC"]}}
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-KIRC_clinical.tsv", "w").write(tsv)IDC: pull the DICOM collection with idc-indexpython
from idc_index import IDCClient
COLLECTION = "tcga_kirc"
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_kirc")This page as data: limitations firstbash
curl -s https://cd2s.vercel.app/data/datasets/gdc-tcga-kirc.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/TCGA-KIRC - Download the open files without an accountFor people
15,306 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
19,725 controlled-access files require an approved data access request. The request starts at dbGaP, not in the portal. The relevant study is phs000178.
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=phs000178gdc-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":["TCGA-KIRC"]}}' \ --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 2013
- Metadata retrieved
- 18 Sept 2026
- Review status
- Machine-extracted
- Data generation funding
- Funded data generation
Funding
Funded data generation
- U24CA144025Harvard Genome Characterization CenterRaju S. KucherlapatiAPI
- U24CA143883Integrative Pipeline for Analysis & Translational Application of TCGA Data (GDAC)Rehan Akbani, GORDON B. MILLSAPI
- U24CA143882The USC-JHU Cancer Epigenome Characterization CenterSTEPHEN B. BAYLIN, Daniel Joseph WeisenbergerAPI
- U24CA143867Genome Characterization Center (GCC)Stacey Gabriel, Matthew L. MeyersonAPI
- U24CA143866Cancer transcriptome characterization using massively parallel DNA sequencingMarco Antonio MarraAPI
- U24CA143858UCSC-Buck Inst. Genome Data Analysis Center for TCGA Research Network (GDAC)Christopher Benz, DAVID H HAUSSLERAPI
- U24CA143848Gene Expression Patterns in Human Tumors Identified Using Transcript SequencingDavid N Hayes, CHARLES M PEROUAPI
- U24CA143845The Cancer Genome Atlas Data Analysis CenterLYNDA CHIN, GAD A GETZAPI
- U24CA143843The BCM Tumor Genome Characterization CenterRICHARD A GIBBS, David Andrew WheelerAPI
- U24CA143840MSKCC Center for Translational Cancer Genomic AnalysisMarc Ladanyi, CHRIS SANDERAPI
Funded reuse of these data
- T32CA009172Physician Scientist Training in Cancer ResearchJennifer R Brown, James A. DeCaprioAPI
- R50CA265182Molecular origins and evolution to treatment resistance in genitourinary cancersJihye ParkAPI
Funded infrastructure or harmonization
- P30CA008748Antitumor AssessmentElisa de Stanchina, FRANCESCA M GANYAPI