This page describes the representational state transfer application programming interface interfaces (REST APIAPIs) implementations that can be used by developers to access TCIA data and resources. The APIs complement the existing web interfaces and enable developers to build direct access to TCIA data into their applications using only the API documentation provided.   The application developer must ensure that they and the users of their applications comply with the TCIA Programmatic Interface REST API GuidesData Usage Policy. If you are interested in using the APIs and have any questions, please contact the TCIA Help Desk except where otherwise noted.

• TCIA Agent Skill: An agent skill is a portable bundle of instructions, references, and helper scripts that an AI agent can load when a task matches a domain.  The TCIA SKILL.mdtells LLMs how to perform a variety of tasks related to our datasets and related publications about them.  Simply install this skill in tools that support them (e.g. Codex, Claude Code, Cursor) or ask your favorite browser-based LLM tool to reference https://github.com/kirbyju/tcia-query-skill/blob/main/SKILL.md and ask your questions.
• The tcia_utils package contains functions to simplify common tasks one might perform when interacting with The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) via Python. If you are using R, please try using this package with reticulate. Issues with this package should be submitted at https://github.com/kirbyju/tcia_utils/issues. Example notebooks demonstrating tcia_utils functionality can be found at https://github.com/kirbyju/TCIA_Notebooks. 
• Collection Manager (Wordpress) REST Web-based API: TCIA has developed custom extensions to Wordpress, which is the software used to manage all of the metadata for our datasets (both Collections and Analysis results).   The REST web-based API for these extensions will allow you to identify which which datasets meet your search criteria, as opposed to the NBIA APIs which let you identify specific patients or scans that match your search criteria.  
• NBIA REST APIs: Provided as part of the NBIA software, these APIs provide access to the search and download functions used in the TCIA radiology portal, and allow access to both public and limited access DICOM collections.

• IDC-Index Python Package: DICOM data from TCIA is available on the Imaging Data Commons (IDC).  The IDC-Index Python Package provides an API for querying metadata and downloading imaging data held in IDC, including DICOM data provided by TCIA.  Please note that this Python Package was not developed by TCIA, though it is provided by a branch of NCI.  While the TCIA Helpdesk may be able to assist if your inquiry is related to the content of the data itself, questions about the use of the package itself should be directed to the IDC Forum.
• DataCite Web-based
• • The NBIA Search REST APIs allow you to perform basic queries and download data for image analysis on public collections.
  • The NBIA Search with Authentication REST APIs allow you to perform basic queries on and download data for image analysis from public and restricted collections.
  • The NBIA Advanced REST APIs also allow access to public and restricted collections, but are geared towards developers seeking to integrate searching and downloading TCIA data into their own web and desktop applications. 
• DataCite REST API: Each Collection TCIA publishes is issued a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) through DataCite.  This API can be used to programmatically access Collection metadata such as their DOIs, titles and abstracts. Please note that this API was not developed by TCIA. See https://support.datacite.org/ for any technical questions.   The TCIA Helpdesk may be able to assist if your inquiry is related to the content of the data itself.

TCIA_Utils

The tcia_utils package contains functions to simplify common tasks one might perform when interacting with The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) via Python.  If you are using R, please try using this package with reticulate (see example below).  Issues with this package should be submitted at https://github.com/kirbyju/tcia_utils/issues.  Example notebooks demonstrating tcia_utils functionality can be found at https://github.com/kirbyju/TCIA_Notebooks. 

...

pip install tcia_utils

To import functions related to the Collection Manager (Wordpress) for accessing high-level metadata about our datasets:

from tcia_utils import wordpress

 To import functions related to NBIA for accessing our DICOM radiology data:

from tcia_utils import nbia

To import functions related to pathDB for accessing our digitized pathology data:

from tcia_utils import pathdb

To import functions related to Datacite for querying Collection metadata such as their DOIs, titles and abstracts:

from tcia_utils import datacite

Using tcia_utils with reticulate in R

If you prefer R to Python, tcia_utils can be used with reticulate. Here's an example:

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• NBIA Web-based API: Provided as part of the NBIA software, these APIs provide access to the search and download functions used in the TCIA radiology portal, and allow access to both public and limited access DICOM collections.
  • Note: As of October 30, 2025 we have officially transitioned to the NBIA v4 REST API. A mapping spreadsheet is provided that compares changes to v4 to previous API versions (Legacy docs: NBIA Search REST APIs, NBIA Search with Authentication REST APIs  NBIA Advanced REST APIs).  We will be ending helpdesk support for these older APIs in October 2026, but do not currently have a set date for when they will be fully decommissioned.  

TCIA Data Usage Policy