# Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/hpo/  
OnCo record `hpo` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The Human Phenotype Ontology is a standard vocabulary of clinical features (signs, symptoms, findings) with codes, used to describe patients in a way computers can compare.

## Summary

The Human Phenotype Ontology is a formal ontology of human phenotypes developed within the Monarch Initiative and the OBO Foundry, with over 13,000 terms and annotations to hereditary diseases (Wikipedia). Terms such as weight loss or lymphadenopathy code clinical findings in records and registries; in oncology it is used less than NCIt, but it is the standard for phenotypes in rare disease and germline cancer predisposition.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: Human Phenotype Ontology; HPO; HPO term; HPO terms; phenotype ontology
- Tags: cansim-terms

## Notes

- Listed in the CanSim terms map 1.0.0 (docs/onco/terms.json, generated 2026-09-24), CC BY 4.0, attribution: CanSim project, an open, public-data-first cancer foundation-model programme; CanSim page path /terms/hpo.

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Phenotype_Ontology
- HPO (Jackson Laboratory): https://hpo.jax.org/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Phenotype_Ontology

## Connected records

- terms: [Cancer AI vocabulary (CanSim terms map)](https://onco.cc/terms/cancer-ai-vocabulary/), [Mondo disease ontology](https://onco.cc/terms/mondo/), [NCI Thesaurus (NCIt)](https://onco.cc/terms/ncit/), [Uberon anatomy ontology and the Cell Ontology](https://onco.cc/terms/uberon/), [Units of measurement ontology (UO)](https://onco.cc/terms/units-ontology/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/hpo.json