# Human Tumor Atlas Network (HTAN)

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

## TL;DR

A US National Cancer Institute project that builds detailed maps of human tumours, cell by cell and in three dimensions, to show how a cancer changes from an early lesion to advanced disease. Researchers anywhere can download most of the processed data.

## Summary

HTAN is an NCI-funded network, part of the Cancer Moonshot, that constructs three-dimensional atlases of the cellular, morphological and molecular features of human cancers as they evolve from precancerous lesions to advanced disease. The founding paper (Rozenblatt-Rosen et al., Cell 2020) set out the aim: to use single-cell genomics and spatial multiplex in situ methods to chart transitions such as tumour initiation, local expansion, metastasis and therapeutic resistance, complementing healthy-organ atlases and earlier bulk-sequencing cancer genomics, and to integrate longitudinal atlases with clinical outcomes in search of predictive biomarkers and therapeutically relevant cell states and interactions.

The portal's data release V8.0 (last updated 3 August 2026) covers 15 atlases, 20 organs, 2,383 cases and 10,608 biospecimens; the site announced the first data release of HTAN Phase 2. Access is tiered: processed level 3 and 4 files are open on Synapse, imaging is open under CC BY 4.0 in the Imaging Data Commons, and raw level 1 and 2 sequencing is controlled through dbGaP study phs002371.

## Fields

- Kind: Collection
- Last checked: 2026-11-03
- Also known as: HTAN; NCI Human Tumor Atlas Network
- URL: https://humantumoratlas.org
- Holds: Single-cell, spatial, imaging and clinical data from human tumours and precancerous lesions, organised as atlases that follow cancers from precancer to advanced disease; data release V8.0 (last updated 2026-08-03) lists 15 atlases, 20 organs, 2,383 cases and 10,608 biospecimens.
- Licence: Mixed: processed level 3 and 4 data open on Synapse; imaging open under CC BY 4.0 on the NCI Imaging Data Commons; level 1 and 2 sequencing access-controlled through dbGaP (phs002371) on the Seven Bridges Cancer Genomics Cloud

## Notes

- The corpus also has an htan row in src/data/data-sources.ts (status candidate) and the htan-portal project in src/data/open-source.ts; this collection record is the reader-facing page for the atlas itself.
- Funding totals and the number of funded atlas centres per phase were not stated on the pages read and are left out.

## Sources

- Human Tumor Atlas Network: https://humantumoratlas.org
- HTAN data access: https://humantumoratlas.org/data-access
- NCI Cancer Moonshot progress (HTAN): https://www.cancer.gov/research/progress/moonshot-cancer-initiative
- Rozenblatt-Rosen et al., The Human Tumor Atlas Network, Cell 2020 (PMID 32302568): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.03.053

## Connected records

- terms: [Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq, 10x Chromium)](https://onco.cc/terms/single-cell-rna-seq/), [Spatial transcriptomics platforms (Visium HD, Xenium, MERFISH, CosMx, CODEX)](https://onco.cc/terms/spatial-transcriptomics-platforms/)
- technologies: [Single-cell & spatial profiling](https://onco.cc/technologies/single-cell-spatial/), [Spatial transcriptomics](https://onco.cc/technologies/spatial-transcriptomics/)

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