{"entity":{"id":"tcga-barcode","kind":"term","name":"TCGA barcode","aka":["TCGA barcode","TCGA barcodes","TCGA sample barcode","TCGA patient barcode","TCGA-XX-XXXX"],"tldr":"A TCGA barcode such as TCGA-A1-A0SB-01A-11R-A144-07 encodes the project, tissue source site, patient, sample type, vial, portion, analyte, plate and centre, and is the key that joins one patient's data files.","summary":"The GDC encyclopedia describes the TCGA barcode as the identifier built from a series of metadata values: project, tissue source site, participant, sample (01 primary tumour, 11 normal), vial, portion, analyte (D for DNA, R for RNA), plate and sequencing centre. The first twelve characters identify the patient and are the join key between expression, mutation, methylation and clinical tables; a tumour and its matched normal share them. The GDC now assigns UUIDs as well, and mixing the two is a common join error.","asOf":"2026-09-24","links":[{"label":"GDC documentation: TCGA barcode","url":"https://docs.gdc.cancer.gov/Encyclopedia/pages/TCGA_Barcode/"}],"tags":["cansim-terms"],"related":["tcga-gdc","cancer-ai-vocabulary"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["tcga-tiers","provenance-fields"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"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/tcga-barcode."],"provenance":{"editedBy":"OnCo CanSim terms wave (Wikipedia summaries, standards and project pages, GDC and FDA pages, Europe PMC)","editedOn":"2026-09-24","note":"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"},"category":"Genomics & genetics"},"route":"/terms/tcga-barcode/","neighbours":{"collection":[{"id":"tcga-gdc","kind":"collection","name":"TCGA / NCI Genomic Data Commons","route":"/collections/tcga-gdc/"}],"term":[{"id":"duckdb-catalog","kind":"term","name":"Analytical databases as a data catalogue (DuckDB, PostgreSQL)","route":"/terms/duckdb-catalog/"},{"id":"cancer-ai-vocabulary","kind":"term","name":"Cancer AI vocabulary (CanSim terms map)","route":"/terms/cancer-ai-vocabulary/"},{"id":"provenance-fields","kind":"term","name":"Provenance fields for research data","route":"/terms/provenance-fields/"},{"id":"tcga-tiers","kind":"term","name":"TCGA open versus controlled data tiers","route":"/terms/tcga-tiers/"}]}}