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Dataerai can pull medical imaging from The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA), an NCI-funded archive of de-identified cancer imaging (CT, MR, PET, pathology) organized into named collections, into one of your projects as metadata-first assets. The collection’s metadata — name, modality mix, and a link to the source archive — is copied into Dataerai so it’s searchable and shareable alongside your own data. The files are not copied: clicking Download on an imported asset streams that imaging series (a .zip of DICOM images) directly from TCIA’s NBIA archive over HTTPS.
Imported assets are metadata-first: they describe and link to data that lives on TCIA. Nothing is stored in your Dataerai allocation, so importing doesn’t consume your quota.
One TCIA collection (such as LIDC-IDRI or Soft-tissue-Sarcoma) imports as a collection of assets — one asset per imaging series in the collection, grouped under a collection named for the TCIA collection and sub-grouped by series description and modality. Each asset’s file (e.g. <series-uid>.zip) downloads straight from TCIA. A collection with no publicly downloadable series instead imports as a single asset that links out to the collection’s NBIA browser page.

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Search The Cancer Imaging Archive

Open the Import from The Cancer Imaging Archive page and enter a search term, then Search.
  • The search matches the collection name — try lung, CPTAC, or breast.
  • Results show Title, Type, and Files, with the collection name under each title.
  • Use Per page to trade clicks for a longer page. The page count reflects the full result set, so you can page to the last page directly.

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Select and import

1

Select collections

Tick the collections you want — click a row, or press Space or Enter on it, to toggle its checkbox. The header checkbox selects or clears everything on the current page; your selection is kept as you page through results.
2

Choose the destination project

Paste the UUID of the project that should own the new assets into the Import into project field.
3

Import

Click Import. Large selections are sent in batches automatically, and a single Import result panel summarizes how many collections were imported (and how many assets were created), plus any that failed and why.
A single collection can contain hundreds or thousands of imaging series, so importing one collection can create many assets. Very large collections import a capped subset of their series; the rest remain available directly on TCIA.
Because imported assets point at TCIA rather than your own storage, their files are only available while the TCIA series are. If you need a durable copy under your control, download the series and upload it as a regular asset instead.

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Next steps

Metadata-first assets

How assets that describe data elsewhere work in Dataerai.

Import from Zenodo

Pull public records from Zenodo the same metadata-first way.

Organize into collections

Group imported collections alongside your own data.

Search & discover

Find imported collections by title, type, and metadata.