The Cancer Imaging Archive
Since 2011, The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) has provided NCI and the cancer research community with a researcher-focused supply of de-identified and highly curated radiology and histopathology imaging. It targets prioritized research needs and supports major NIH research programs. Imaging collections include data related to the images, such as patient outcomes, treatment details, genomics, pathology, and expert analyses that are provided or linked to when available.
Cancer Imaging Informatics Lab
The Cancer Imaging Informatics Lab is an FNLCR support team that manages the TCIA subcontract. Its objective is to increase public availability of high-quality cancer imaging data sets for research, support NIH data sharing requirements for the cancer imaging community, enhance reproducibility in research, and create a culture of open data sharing and collaboration among cancer imaging researchers.
The Cancer Imaging Informatics Lab also supports the development of new technologies and methodologies such as clinical imaging data de-identification and curation, radiomics and image characterization, AI and deep learning, and integrative, multi-disciplinary data analysis (e.g., radiogenomics). The Lab provides leadership, expertise, and imaging data support to NIH program activities such as the Quantitative Imaging Network, Informatics Technology in Cancer Research, CPTAC, APOLLO, and NCI efforts to create a Cancer Research Data Commons infrastructure. Data from TCIA collections are also used for image analysis challenges or competitions (e.g., image segmentation or tumor classification).
With the large increase in demand for publicly available de-identified image data with associated clinical and other metadata, there is now an opportunity to substantially increase the value to the research community by making available imaging data with links to clinical trial analyses, associated clinical data and patient outcomes.