• You can now filter images by whether or not they contain phantoms. For information, see the phantom filter section of this guide.
• You can now filter images by whether or not they contain third-party analysis results. For information, see the third-party analysis results filter section of this guide.

• You can now filter images by their represented species, either human or mouse. For information, see the species filter section of this guide.

TCIA provides two ways to search for image studies:

• Simple Search
• Text Search

When you first open TCIA Data Portal, the Summary tab displays filters for a simple search and pie charts.

Click one or more boxes next to each search filter to select it. As you select search filters, they move to the top of the list. They also appear in Boolean query format above the pie charts. This query specifies the filters you have applied to your search. Click Clear if you want to remove all of your filters at once and start over. You can save your query as a URL for later use or to put in an email to a colleague. For more information about sharing, go to Sharing a Query.

You can narrow your search by the following filters:

• Collections
• Image Modality
• Anatomical Site
• Species
• Phantoms
• 3rd-Party Analysis Results
• Date released
• Subject IDs

You can also specify the minimum number of image studies you want to match each search filter. For Collections, if you know the name of the collection, click  to enter it instead of finding and clicking the collection's box.

The Simple Search page shows a summary of image studies that match your search criteria. Your selections appear in the following ways:

• Boxes you selected are checked.
• Pie charts update to show the exact search results.
• Breadcrumb-style labels at the top of the page show the applied search filters (not all may display due to space constraints).
• Count of search results appears.

The pie charts show the count of image studies in your search results by Collection, Image Modality, and Anatomical Site. Click a pie slice or hover over it to see the name of the Collection, Image Modality, or Anatomical Site, and number of each, in your search results.

The Search Results tab shows the same results as the pie charts but in tabular form.

Text searches involve entering any text that might appear in any search filter.

Results are displayed in pie charts and a table, just as with the simple search.

To perform a simple search

1. On the TCIA home page, click the Simple Search tab.
   The Simple Search page appears.
   

2. Select filters to narrow down the available image series.

   To Select	Do This
   Collections	Option 1: Click the box next to each collection name you want to select.
   	Option 2: Click the magnifying glass to enter a name.
   Image Modality	Click the box next to one or more image modalities. If you select more than one image modality, clicking ANY will returns any study that is associated with any of the modalities you selected. Clicking ALL returns all studies that are associated with all of the modalities you selected.
   Anatomical Site	Click the box next to each anatomical site you want to select.
   Species	Click the box next to the species you want your search results to represent, either human or Mus musculus (mouse).
   Phantoms	Click the box next to the phantom option you want to select.
   3rd-Party Analysis Results	3rd-party analysis results are derived data (e.g. segmentations) that were contributed by researchers who were not part of the group that originally submitted a collection to TCIA. Click the box next to each third-party analysis results option you want to select. Only DICOM data from third-party analysis results appear when using this search filter. A full listing of all third-party analysis data inclusive of non-DICOM formats can be found in the Analysis Results Directory.
   At least X time point (DICOM studies)	Enter the minimum number of time points that match the criteria of your search. This filter allows you to see subjects that have more than one DICOM study (that is, the patient was seen at multiple time points).
   Date released	Enter a From and To date to narrow your search results to studies that TCIA first made available during that date range. Alternately, select the Apply "Available" date range box to exclude studies that were unavailable to TCIA during the selected date range. Click the  button to return the dates to the default date range.
   Subject IDs	Enter Subject IDs associated with the image series you want to receive in your search results. Separate each Subject ID with a comma and then click Apply Subject IDs.

   The Summary tab shows updated pie charts and the number of image series in the search results.
   
   Click the Search Results tab for more detailed results.

A simple example of a text search is to find all subjects associated with the value pancreas by typing pancreas in the Text Search box. You can also use the field:searchTerm technique; for example, Body Part Examined:pancreas. In this example, the colon interprets the DICOM field from the value. Since text search also recognizes DICOM codes, you can also search on 0018,0015:pancreas, which is the DICOM code for Body Part Examined. Additionally, you can use a wildcard search such as Body Part Examined:panc* to find all subjects associated with values beginning with panc, including pancreas, pancreatic duct, and pancreatic duct and bile duct systems.

The text search does have some restrictions. These are:

• The text string you use must have more than one character. The search won't return any values if the text string has only one character.
• Do not use a forward slash (/) in your text string.
• Do not use complex searches with AND or OR statements (text search supports Lucene syntax but only a single field can be searched at a time).

To perform a text search

1. On the TCIA home page, click Text Search or Search Images > Text Search.
   The Text Search page appears.

   

2. In the Text Search box, enter a text string of two characters or more.

3. Click .
   The search results appear.
   

   Navigation Tips

   • Click the down arrow next to the Subject ID column header to sort the results alphabetically (A to Z or Z to A) by Subject ID.
   • Click the arrows at the bottom of the table to display the first, previous, next, or last page of results.
   • Click the page number links to move to a specific page of results.
   • In the Show (10) entries box in the bottom left, edit the default 10 to the number of entries you want to see on a search results page.

   The following table describes each item in the search results table.

   Search Result	Description
   	Click the caret to view the subject details. Click the cart symbol to add image series to your cart.
   Collection ID	Collection identifier
   Subject ID	Click the Subject ID to view all study images for this subject in a DICOM web viewer, a single series' thumbnails, or the DICOM header for the first image in the series. See Search Results (Studies for Subject).
   Hit	The field in the study where the text string you entered as your search criteria appears

To view thumbnails

1. View the details for a subject.
2. Select a study and view its details.
3. In the row for an image series, click .
   
   Thumbnails of all of the images in the selected image series appear.
   
   
4. Click any image to download it to your computer. 
   Follow your browser's instructions to open or save the file.
   

To add all image series associated with a subject to the cart

1. Search for the subject.
2. Click the Search Results tab.

3. Click the cart icon in the row of one or more subjects.
   The cart icon turns green and the number of image series now in your cart appears next to the cart. The cart itself, in the upper-right of the window, shows how many image series are in it and how large the download will be.

   To remove all of the data associated with this subject from the cart, click the cart icon again.

   
   

To add all image series associated with a study to the cart

1. Search for the subject.
2. Click the Search Results tab.
3. Click a Subject ID link.
   All of the studies associated with this subject appear.

4. Click the cart icon next to one or more studies.
   All of the image series in the selected studies are added to the cart.

• • The cart icon in the study row turns green. If you did not select all of the studies associated with the subject, the cart icon in the subject row turns yellow.

  • The cart itself, in the upper-right of the window, shows how many image series are in it and how large the download will be.

    To remove all of the data associated with this subject from the cart, click the cart icon again.

    

To add one or more image series to the cart

1. Search for the subject.
2. Click the Search Results tab.
3. Click a Subject ID link to open all series associated with that subject.
4. Click the cart icon for one or more series.
   The cart icon you select turns green.
   The cart icon for the subject turns yellow, indicating that you have not selected all available series for this subject.
   

The most convenient method of downloading is by using the NBIA Data Retriever. You must install the NBIA Data Retriever before you begin downloading. You only have to install it once to use it in future downloading sessions.

To download images using the NBIA Data Retriever

1. Search for images of interest.
2. Add those images to your cart.
3. Click the cart icon in the top-right of the page .
   The cart contents appear.
   
4. Click .
   A message appears reminding you to download the NBIA Data Retriever. If you have already downloaded it, click Do not show this message again and click . Otherwise, click  to go to a page with links for downloads for each operating system.
   

5. Open the manifest-xxx.tcia file.
   The  NBIA Data Retriever appears, with the items you added to your cart in the Downloads table.
   

   The NBIA Data Retriever lists all items you selected in the cart. You can hover your mouse over the Patient ID, Study Instance, and Series Instance columns to reveal the complete corresponding IDs. You can also resize a column by selecting and dragging the column border.

   If you do not want to download any of those items, select them in the Downloads table and then click Delete. When you remove an item from the Downloads table, it stays in your cart.

6. Click Browse to navigate to the destination where you want the images/annotations to be downloaded.

7. Click Start to begin the download. You can monitor the download in the Progress column. The Status column indicates when the download for each item is complete.

   At any point in the process, you can click the Pause and Resume buttons to temporarily stop and restart the process.

   Note that files downloaded this way are not compressed. The downloaded files are stored in a child folder under the destination folder such as Collection Name > Patient ID > part of Study Date + part of Study ID + part of Study Description + last 5 digits of Study Instance UID > part of Series Number + part of Series Description + last 5 digits of Series Instance UID.

   Network Error?

   If network errors occur during large downloads, the NBIA Data Retriever retries downloading the series in the manifest file the number of times that your administrator has configured. The default is four times.

   After the automatic retries, you have the option of saving an error report, which you can share with the TCIA help desk, or of retrying just the failed series.