Individual

An Individual entry documents a human participant (or the source patient behind a derived model) from whom biospecimens were collected for MC² Center-supported research. Individual metadata captures demographic information, diagnosis and staging at the individual level, and longitudinal clinical outcomes such as treatment history, recurrence, and vital status.

This model outlines the key attributes needed to describe an individual independent of any single specimen or assay, so that clinical context collected once can be linked across every biospecimen, model, and dataset derived from that individual.

Why You Should Contribute Individual Entries

Contributing individual entries ensures that clinical and demographic context is recorded once and consistently reused across every biospecimen and downstream dataset tied to that person, rather than being duplicated or left out of assay-level metadata. This supports accurate cohort analysis, reduces re-collection of the same clinical details, and helps ensure patient privacy is respected through consistent de-identified identifiers.

Sharing human-derived data responsibly

If you are planning to share human-derived data, verify that you have satisfied any institutional review policies.

Before uploading data to Synapse, be sure that the information is de-identified and anonymized. If this is not possible, you have any concerns, or are unsure if a file or type of metadata is suitable to share, ask the MC² Center!

Who Should Be Contributing Individual Entries?

1. Clinical Research Coordinators – Ensure demographic and diagnosis information is accurately captured at enrollment.
2. Data Managers – Maintain the individual-level record that biospecimen and model entries key off of.
3. Principal Investigators (PIs) – Ensure longitudinal outcomes (treatment response, recurrence, vital status) are kept up to date as a study progresses.
4. Biobank Coordinators – Link individuals to the biospecimens collected from them.

Download Template

You can download the Individual entry template, which includes all required fields, to streamline the data entry process.

Full Field Reference

Below is the full field reference table with attributes and their descriptions.

Attribute	Description	Required	Column Type	Format	Regex Pattern	Standard Terms	Examples
Individual_id	Unique row identifier, used as a primary key for record updates. This should follow the GrantNumber-INDxxx convention unless otherwise indicated.	True	string	None	^CA\d{6}-IND\d{1,9}$	None
Study Key	The unique Study_id foreign keys associated with the resource, found in the grant Study information. Used to group the resource with other components. Please provide multiple values as a comma-separated list.	False	string	None	None	None
Individual dbGaP Subject Id	The identifer assigned to the participant by dbGap	False	string	None	None	None
Individual Sex	Biological sex associated with the specimen donor	True	string	None	None	View
Individual Gender	Text designations that identify gender. Gender is described as the assemblage of properties that distinguish people on the basis of their societal roles. Identification of gender is based upon self-report and may come from a form, questionnaire, interview, etc.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Age at Diagnosis	Age at the time the individual was diagnosed, expressed in years.	False	number	None	None	None
Individual Disease Type	The type of tumor associated with the specimen. Multiple values permitted, comma separated.	False	string_list	None	None	View
Individual Primary Diagnosis	Text term used to describe the patient's histologic diagnosis, as described by the World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O).	True	string	None	None	View
Individual Primary Site	Primary site in the body associated with the primary diagnosis.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Primary Tumor Stage	Extent of the primary cancer based on evidence obtained from clinical assessment parameters determined prior to treatment.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Site of Origin	The text term used to describe the anatomic site of origin, of the patient's malignant disease.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Tumor Subtype	The subtype related to the scientific determination and investigation, analysis and recognition of the presence and nature of disease, condition, or injury from expressed signs and symptoms of tissue growth resulting from uncontrolled cell proliferation.	False	string	None	None	None
Individual Tumor Grade	Numeric value to express the degree of abnormality of cancer cells, a measure of differentiation and aggressiveness.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Tumor Lymph Node Stage	Extent of the regional lymph node involvement for the cancer based on evidence obtained from clinical assessment parameters determined prior to treatment.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Known Metastasis Sites	The text term(s) used to describe the anatomic site(s) of metastasis associated with the patient's malignant disease.	False	string_list	None	None	View
Individual Metastasis Stage	Extent of the distant metastasis for the cancer based on evidence obtained from clinical assessment parameters determined prior to treatment.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Treatment Type	Text term that describes the kind of treatment administered.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Therapeutic Agent	Text identification of the individual agent(s) used as part of a treatment regimen.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Days to Treatment	Number of days between the date used for index and the date the treatment started.	False	number	None	None	None
Individual Treatment Response	Text term that describes the patient's final outcome after the treatment was administered.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Days to Last Followup	Number of days between the dates used for index and last follow-up	False	number	None	None	None
Individual Recurrence Status	Yes/No/Unknown indicator to identify whether a patient has had a new tumor event after initial treatment.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Days To Recurrence	Number of days between the date used for index and the date the patient's disease recurred	False	number	None	None	None
Individual Days to Last Known Disease Status	Time interval from the date of last follow up to the date of initial pathologic diagnosis, represented as a calculated number of days.	False	number	None	None	None
Individual Last Known Disease Status	Text term that describes the last known status of an individual.	False	string	None	None	View
Individual Vital Status	Text term that describes the patient's current vital status.	False	string	None	None	View