TCGAbiolinks retrieved molecular subtypes information from TCGA samples. The functions PanCancerAtlas_subtypes and TCGAquery_subtype can be used to get the information tables.
While the PanCancerAtlas_subtypes function gives access to a curated table retrieved from synapse (probably with the most updated molecular subtypes) the TCGAquery_subtype function has the complete table also with sample information retrieved from the TCGA marker papers.
PanCancerAtlas_subtypes: Curated molecular subtypes.Data and description retrieved from synapse (https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn8402849)
Synapse has published a single file with all available molecular subtypes that have been described by TCGA (all tumor types and all molecular platforms), which can be accessed using the PanCancerAtlas_subtypes function as below:
subtypes <- PanCancerAtlas_subtypes()
DT::datatable(
    data = subtypes,
    filter = 'top',
    options = list(scrollX = TRUE, keys = TRUE, pageLength = 5),
    rownames = FALSE
)The columns “Subtype_Selected” was selected as most prominent subtype classification (from the other columns)
| All available molecular data based-subtype | Selected subtype | Number of samples | Link to file | Reference | link to paper | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, miRNA, CNA, COC, C1A.C1B | DNAmeth | 91 | Link | Cancer Cell 2016 | Link | 
| AML | mRNA and miRNA | mRNA | 187 | Link | NEJM 2013 | Link | 
| BLCA | mRNA subtypes | mRNA | 129 | Link | Nature 2014 | Link | 
| BRCA | PAM50 (mRNA) | PAM50 | 1218 | Link | Nature 2012 | Link | 
| GBM/LGG* | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, Supervised_DNAmeth | Supervised_DNAmeth | 1122 | Link | Cell 2016 | Link | 
| Pan-GI (preliminary) ESCA/STAD/COAD/READ | Molecular_Subtype | Molecular_Subtype | 1011 | Link | Cancer Cell 2018 | Link | 
| HNSC | mRNA, DNAmeth, RPPA, miRNA, CNA, Paradigm | mRNA | 279 | Link (TabS7.2) | Nature 2015 | Link | 
| KICH | Eosinophilic | Eosinophilic | 66 | Link | Cancer Cell 2014 | Link | 
| KIRC | mRNA, miRNA | mRNA | 442 | Link | Nature 2013 | Link | 
| KIRP | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, miRNA, CNA, COC | COC | 161 | Link | NEJM 2015 | Link | 
| LIHC (preliminary) | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, miRNA, CNA, Paradigma, iCluster | iCluster | 196 | Link (Table S1A) | not published | |
| LUAD | DNAmeth, iCluster | iCluster | 230 | Link (Table S7) | Nature 2014 | Link | 
| LUSC | mRNA | mRNA | 178 | Link (Data file S7.5) | Nature 2012 | Link | 
| OVCA | mRNA | mRNA | 489 | Link | Nature 2011 | Link | 
| PCPG | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, miRNA, CNA | mRNA | 178 | tableS2 | Cancer Cell 2017 | Link | 
| PRAD | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, miRNA, CNA, icluster, mutation/fusion | mutation/fusion | 333 | Link | Cell 2015 | Link | 
| SKCM | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, miRNA, mutation | mutation | 331 | Link (Table S1D) | Cell 2015 | Link | 
| THCA | mRNA, DNAmeth, protein, miRNA, CNA, histology | mRNA | 496 | Link (Table S2 - Tab1) | Cell 2014 | Link | 
| UCEC | iCluster, MSI, CNA, mRNA | iCluster - updated according to Pan-Gyne/Pathways groups | 538 | Link (datafile S1.1) | Nature 2013 | Link | 
| Link | ||||||
| UCS (preliminary) | mRNA | mRNA | 57 | Link | not published | 
TCGAquery_subtype: Working with molecular subtypes data.The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research Network has reported integrated genome-wide studies of various diseases. We have added some of the subtypes defined by these report in our package:
| TCGA dataset | Link | Paper | Journal | 
|---|---|---|---|
| ACC | doi:10.1016/j.ccell.2016.04.002 | Comprehensive Pan-Genomic Characterization of Adrenocortical Carcinoma. | Cancer cell 2016 | 
| BRCA | https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(18)30119-3 | A Comprehensive Pan-Cancer Molecular Study of Gynecologic and Breast Cancers | Cancer cell 2018 | 
| BLCA | http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)31056-5 | Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Cell 2017 | |
| CHOL | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124717302140?via%3Dihub | Integrative Genomic Analysis of Cholangiocarcinoma Identifies Distinct IDH-Mutant Molecular Profiles | Cell Reports 2017 | 
| COAD | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7407/abs/nature11252.html | Comprehensive molecular characterization of human colon and rectal cancer | Nature 2012 | 
| ESCA | https://www.nature.com/articles/nature20805 | Integrated genomic characterization of oesophageal carcinoma | Nature 2017 | 
| GBM | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.12.028 | Molecular Profiling Reveals Biologically Discrete Subsets and Pathways of Progression in Diffuse Glioma | Cell 2016 | 
| HNSC | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7536/abs/nature14129.html | Comprehensive genomic characterization of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas | Nature 2015 | 
| KICH | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1535610814003043 | The Somatic Genomic Landscape of Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma | Cancer cell 2014 | 
| KIRC | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v499/n7456/abs/nature12222.html | Comprehensive molecular characterization of clear cell renal cell carcinoma | Nature 2013 | 
| KIRP | http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1505917 | Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Papillary Renal-Cell Carcinoma | NEJM 2016 | 
| LIHC | http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0092-8674(17)30639-6 | Comprehensive and Integrative Genomic Characterization of Hepatocellular Carcinoma | Cell 2017 | 
| LGG | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2015.12.028 | Molecular Profiling Reveals Biologically Discrete Subsets and Pathways of Progression in Diffuse Glioma | Cell 2016 | 
| LUAD | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v511/n7511/abs/nature13385.html | Comprehensive molecular profiling of lung adenocarcinoma | Nature 2014 | 
| LUSC | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v489/n7417/abs/nature11404.html | Comprehensive genomic characterization of squamous cell lung cancers | Nature 2012 | 
| PAAD | http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(17)30299-4 | Integrated Genomic Characterization of Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma | Cancer Cell 2017 | 
| PCPG | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2017.01.001 | Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma | Cancer cell 2017 | 
| PRAD | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867415013392 | The Molecular Taxonomy of Primary Prostate Cancer | Cell 2015 | 
| READ | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v487/n7407/abs/nature11252.html | Comprehensive molecular characterization of human colon and rectal cancer | Nature 2012 | 
| SARC | http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)31203-5 | Comprehensive and Integrated Genomic Characterization of Adult Soft Tissue Sarcomas | Cell 2017 | 
| SKCM | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867415006340 | Genomic Classification of Cutaneous Melanoma | Cell 2015 | 
| STAD | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v511/n7511/abs/nature13385.html | Comprehensive molecular characterization of gastric adenocarcinoma | Nature 2013 | 
| THCA | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867414012380 | Integrated Genomic Characterization of Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma | Cell 2014 | 
| UCEC | http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v497/n7447/abs/nature12113.html | Integrated genomic characterization of endometrial carcinoma | Nature 2013 | 
| UCS | http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(17)30053-3 | Integrated Molecular Characterization of Uterine Carcinosarcoma Cancer | Cell 2017 | 
| UVM | http://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(17)30295-7 | Integrative Analysis Identifies Four Molecular and Clinical Subsets in Uveal Melanoma | Cancer Cell 2017 | 
These subtypes will be automatically added in the summarizedExperiment object through GDCprepare. But you can also use the TCGAquery_subtype function to retrieve this information.
## lgg subtype information from:doi:10.1016/j.cell.2015.12.028A subset of the LGG subytpe is shown below:
## R version 4.5.0 RC (2025-04-04 r88126)
## Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
## Running under: Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS
## 
## Matrix products: default
## BLAS:   /home/biocbuild/bbs-3.21-bioc/R/lib/libRblas.so 
## LAPACK: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/lapack/liblapack.so.3.12.0  LAPACK version 3.12.0
## 
## locale:
##  [1] LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NUMERIC=C              
##  [3] LC_TIME=en_GB              LC_COLLATE=C              
##  [5] LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8    LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8   
##  [7] LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8       LC_NAME=C                 
##  [9] LC_ADDRESS=C               LC_TELEPHONE=C            
## [11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C       
## 
## time zone: America/New_York
## tzcode source: system (glibc)
## 
## attached base packages:
## [1] grid      stats4    stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets 
## [8] methods   base     
## 
## other attached packages:
##  [1] maftools_2.24.0             jpeg_0.1-11                
##  [3] png_0.1-8                   DT_0.33                    
##  [5] dplyr_1.1.4                 SummarizedExperiment_1.38.0
##  [7] Biobase_2.68.0              GenomicRanges_1.60.0       
##  [9] GenomeInfoDb_1.44.0         IRanges_2.42.0             
## [11] S4Vectors_0.46.0            BiocGenerics_0.54.0        
## [13] generics_0.1.3              MatrixGenerics_1.20.0      
## [15] matrixStats_1.5.0           TCGAbiolinks_2.36.0        
## [17] testthat_3.2.3             
## 
## loaded via a namespace (and not attached):
##   [1] RColorBrewer_1.1-3          rstudioapi_0.17.1          
##   [3] jsonlite_2.0.0              magrittr_2.0.3             
##   [5] GenomicFeatures_1.60.0      rmarkdown_2.29             
##   [7] BiocIO_1.18.0               fs_1.6.6                   
##   [9] vctrs_0.6.5                 Rsamtools_2.24.0           
##  [11] memoise_2.0.1               RCurl_1.98-1.17            
##  [13] htmltools_0.5.8.1           S4Arrays_1.8.0             
##  [15] usethis_3.1.0               progress_1.2.3             
##  [17] curl_6.2.2                  SparseArray_1.8.0          
##  [19] sass_0.4.10                 bslib_0.9.0                
##  [21] htmlwidgets_1.6.4           desc_1.4.3                 
##  [23] fontawesome_0.5.3           plyr_1.8.9                 
##  [25] httr2_1.1.2                 cachem_1.1.0               
##  [27] GenomicAlignments_1.44.0    mime_0.13                  
##  [29] lifecycle_1.0.4             pkgconfig_2.0.3            
##  [31] Matrix_1.7-3                R6_2.6.1                   
##  [33] fastmap_1.2.0               GenomeInfoDbData_1.2.14    
##  [35] shiny_1.10.0                digest_0.6.37              
##  [37] colorspace_2.1-1            ShortRead_1.66.0           
##  [39] AnnotationDbi_1.70.0        ps_1.9.1                   
##  [41] rprojroot_2.0.4             pkgload_1.4.0              
##  [43] crosstalk_1.2.1             RSQLite_2.3.9              
##  [45] hwriter_1.3.2.1             filelock_1.0.3             
##  [47] httr_1.4.7                  abind_1.4-8                
##  [49] compiler_4.5.0              remotes_2.5.0              
##  [51] bit64_4.6.0-1               withr_3.0.2                
##  [53] downloader_0.4.1            BiocParallel_1.42.0        
##  [55] DBI_1.2.3                   pkgbuild_1.4.7             
##  [57] R.utils_2.13.0              biomaRt_2.64.0             
##  [59] rappdirs_0.3.3              DelayedArray_0.34.1        
##  [61] sessioninfo_1.2.3           rjson_0.2.23               
##  [63] DNAcopy_1.82.0              tools_4.5.0                
##  [65] chromote_0.5.0              httpuv_1.6.16              
##  [67] R.oo_1.27.0                 glue_1.8.0                 
##  [69] restfulr_0.0.15             promises_1.3.2             
##  [71] gtable_0.3.6                tzdb_0.5.0                 
##  [73] R.methodsS3_1.8.2           tidyr_1.3.1                
##  [75] websocket_1.4.4             data.table_1.17.0          
##  [77] hms_1.1.3                   xml2_1.3.8                 
##  [79] XVector_0.48.0              pillar_1.10.2              
##  [81] stringr_1.5.1               vroom_1.6.5                
##  [83] later_1.4.2                 splines_4.5.0              
##  [85] BiocFileCache_2.16.0        lattice_0.22-7             
##  [87] deldir_2.0-4                rtracklayer_1.68.0         
##  [89] aroma.light_3.38.0          survival_3.8-3             
##  [91] bit_4.6.0                   tidyselect_1.2.1           
##  [93] Biostrings_2.76.0           miniUI_0.1.1.1             
##  [95] knitr_1.50                  xfun_0.52                  
##  [97] devtools_2.4.5              brio_1.1.5                 
##  [99] stringi_1.8.7               UCSC.utils_1.4.0           
## [101] yaml_2.3.10                 codetools_0.2-20           
## [103] TCGAbiolinksGUI.data_1.28.0 evaluate_1.0.3             
## [105] interp_1.1-6                EDASeq_2.42.0              
## [107] archive_1.1.12              tibble_3.2.1               
## [109] BiocManager_1.30.25         cli_3.6.4                  
## [111] xtable_1.8-4                munsell_0.5.1              
## [113] processx_3.8.6              jquerylib_0.1.4            
## [115] Rcpp_1.0.14                 dbplyr_2.5.0               
## [117] XML_3.99-0.18               parallel_4.5.0             
## [119] ellipsis_0.3.2              ggplot2_3.5.2              
## [121] readr_2.1.5                 blob_1.2.4                 
## [123] prettyunits_1.2.0           latticeExtra_0.6-30        
## [125] profvis_0.4.0               urlchecker_1.0.1           
## [127] bitops_1.0-9                pwalign_1.4.0              
## [129] scales_1.3.0                purrr_1.0.4                
## [131] crayon_1.5.3                BiocStyle_2.36.0           
## [133] rlang_1.1.6                 KEGGREST_1.48.0            
## [135] rvest_1.0.4