# Radiology imaging as a data modality (CT, MRI, TCIA)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/radiology-imaging-modality/  
OnCo record `radiology-imaging-modality` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

CT, MRI and PET scans are a data modality in their own right; public archives such as TCIA hold de-identified scans, some linked to TCGA tumours, for training imaging models.

## Summary

Radiology images are stored as DICOM series and, like digitised slides (Wikipedia on digital pathology), are analysed by software at scale. The Cancer Imaging Archive and the NCI Imaging Data Commons hold de-identified collections, including scans of TCGA patients, under open licences. Radiomics extracts hand-designed features; radiology foundation models such as RadFM and CT-FM learn features directly. Imaging is the modality most multimodal cancer models have yet to add.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: radiology imaging data; CT imaging data; MRI data; DICOM imaging; imaging modality; radiology modality
- Tags: cansim-terms

## Notes

- Listed in the CanSim terms map 1.0.0 (docs/onco/terms.json, generated 2026-09-24), CC BY 4.0, attribution: CanSim project, an open, public-data-first cancer foundation-model programme; CanSim page path /terms/radiology-imaging.

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_pathology
- The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA): https://www.cancerimagingarchive.net/
- NCI Imaging Data Commons: https://portal.imaging.datacommons.cancer.gov/
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_pathology

## Connected records

- collections: [The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA)](https://onco.cc/collections/tcia/)
- terms: [Cancer AI vocabulary (CanSim terms map)](https://onco.cc/terms/cancer-ai-vocabulary/)
- technologies: [AI in radiology](https://onco.cc/technologies/radiology-ai-screening/), [CT-FM (whole-body CT foundation model)](https://onco.cc/technologies/ct-fm/), [RadFM (generalist radiology foundation model)](https://onco.cc/technologies/radfm/), [Radiomics](https://onco.cc/technologies/radiomics/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/radiology-imaging-modality.json