This page describes the application programming interfaces (APIs) 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 Data Usage Policy. If you are interested in using the APIs and have any questions, please contact the TCIA Help Desk except where otherwise noted.

• Collection Manager (Wordpress) 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 web-based API for these extensions will allow you to identify 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 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.  

• DataCite Web-based 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.
• 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.

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.md tells 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.

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. 

Installation can be achieved with this Pip command:

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 the Imaging Data Commons for accessing our public DICOM radiology data: (Note: we are transitioning to NCI's Imaging Data Commons and will be deprecating NBIA – please switch to the idc.py module or use the IDC-Index Python Package for public DICOM data)

from tcia_utils import idc

To import functions related to pathDB for accessing our non-DICOM 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:

# install reticulate first if you haven't already
install.packages("reticulate")

# load reticulate
library(reticulate)

# install tcia_utils
py_install("tcia_utils")

# import tcia_utils
nbia <- import("tcia_utils.nbia")  # Equivalent to `from tcia_utils import nbia`

# then you can call its functions directly
results <- tcia$your_function()
print(results)

# e.g.  Equivalent to `nbia.getCollections()`
collections <- nbia$getCollections()  

TCIA Data Usage Policy