Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government

TCGA Timeline and Milestones

TCGA history and timeline

Credit: National Cancer Institute

2005

February

The National Cancer Advisory Board’s working group on biomedical technology recommends initiating a “Human Cancer Genome Project” with the aim of obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the genomic alterations that underlie all major cancers

July

The NCI and NHGRI hold a workshop, “Toward a Comprehensive Genomic Analysis of Cancer”, on implementing a pilot phase of the Human Cancer Genome Project

December

The NIH launches The Cancer Genome Atlas with a three-year, $100 million pilot

2006

May

TCGA holds a workshop to discuss data release guidelines that would make data readily accessible to researchers while protecting the privacy of participating individuals

September

NIH announces lung, brain and ovarian cancers will be the first mapped by TCGA

October

NIH announces the Cancer Genome Characterization Centers and Data Coordinating Center components of TCGA

November

NHGRI announces funding for three large-scale genome sequencing centers

2007

July

TCGA awards funds to support development of genomic characterization technologies

First upload of data from the Cancer Genome Characterization Centers to the Data Coordinating Center

2008

January

The project team meets to discuss the first iteration of TCGA’s Data Portal and data analysis tools

April

TCGA updates informed consent policies

September

TCGA publishes an interim analysis on glioblastoma, defining three critical signaling pathways

2009

February

Ovarian cancer data uploaded to the Data Coordinating Center

March

Genome Sequencing Centers shift from sequencing 601 genes to hybrid capture methods that target more than 6,000 gene and miRNA sequences

June

Genome Sequencing Centers begin utilizing second-generation sequencing, which generates whole exome and whole genome data

September

NIH funds seven Genome Data Analysis Centers to integrate and analyze the large quantities of data of various types being generated by the characterization centers

2010

September

Fueled by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, NIH extends TCGA to map 20 types of cancer

December

TCGA open access data are made available for the first time through the International Cancer Genome Consortium Data Portal

2011

July

TCGA publishes marker paper on ovarian cancer

October

TCGA ships milestone 5,000th case to Genome Characterization Centers

November

Genome Sequencing Centers receive funding renewal in support of TCGA sequencing efforts

TCGA holds its First Annual Scientific Symposium

2012

January

TCGA launches the Cancer Genomics Hub (CGHub) as the new TCGA data repository 

July

TCGA publishes marker paper on colorectal carcinoma, showing colon and rectal tumors to constitute a single type of cancer

September

TCGA publishes marker paper on squamous cell lung cancers, revealing complex genomic alterations and recurrent mutations in genes including TP53.

October

TCGA publishes marker paper on breast cancer, revealing molecular similarities to ovarian cancer

November

TCGA holds its Second Annual Scientific Symposium

December

NCI awards a contract to develop TCGA Protected Data Cloud, with the goal to allow researchers to analyze large amounts of genomic data in a secure cloud environment

2013

May

TCGA publishes marker papers on acute myeloid leukemia and endometrial carcinoma

June

TCGA publishes marker paper on clear cell renal cell carcinoma

October

TCGA publishes an expanded study on glioblastoma using newer, next-generation sequencing data

TCGA forms a Pan-Cancer analysis working group to assemble and study data from multiple cancer types

December

TCGA concludes sample collection, having gathered over 20,000 biospecimens

2014

January

TCGA publishes marker paper on bladder cancer

May

TCGA holds its Third Annual Scientific Symposium

June

Final sample is shipped for genome characterization

July

TCGA publishes marker papers on lung adenocarcinoma and gastric adenocarcinoma

August

TCGA publishes marker paper on chromophobe renal cell carcinoma, a rare form of kidney cancer

TCGA publishes an integrative Pan-Cancer analysis using one dozen tumor types

October

TCGA publishes marker paper on papillary thyroid carcinoma

2015

January

TCGA publishes marker paper on head and neck squamous cell carcinomas

May

TCGA holds its Fourth Annual Scientific Symposium

June

TCGA publishes marker papers on lower grade glioma and cutaneous melanoma

October

TCGA publishes marker paper on invasive lobular carcinoma, the most common invasive breast cancer subtype

TCGA directors Jean C. Zenklusen and Carolyn Hutter win the 2015 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies) People's Choice Award

November

TCGA publishes marker paper on prostate cancer

2016

January

TCGA publishes marker paper on papillary renal-cell carcinoma

May

TCGA publishes marker paper on adrenocortical carcinoma, a rare endocrine cancer, and a comparison of lung adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

June

NCI launches the Genomic Data Commons (GDC), a unified data system that will host TCGA and genomic data from other programs and studies

July

The TCGA Data Portal and CGHub close

2017

January

TCGA publishes marker papers on esophageal cancers and cervical cancer

February

TCGA publishes marker paper on pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas, rare neuroendocrine tumors

March

TCGA publishes marker papers on uterine carcinosarcoma and cholangiocarcinoma

June

TCGA publishes marker paper on hepatocellular carcinoma

August

TCGA publishes marker papers on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and uveal melanoma

October

TCGA publishes expanded bladder cancer study

November

TCGA publishes marker paper on soft tissue sarcoma

2018

February

TCGA publishes marker paper on thymic epithelial tumors

April

TCGA publishes the Pan-Cancer Atlas, a collection of cross-cancer analyses delving into overarching themes on cancer using the complete TCGA data set

June

TCGA publishes marker paper on testicular germ cell tumors

July

TCGA publishes marker paper on mesothelioma

September

Cell Symposia held on the TCGA Legacy: Multi-Omic Studies in Cancer. TCGA Analysis Network continues to mine the data for new insights.

If you would like to reproduce some or all of this content, see Reuse of NCI Information for guidance about copyright and permissions. In the case of permitted digital reproduction, please credit the National Cancer Institute as the source and link to the original NCI product using the original product's title; e.g., “TCGA Timeline and Milestones was originally published by the National Cancer Institute.”

Email