Since the initial release, IDC Portal included the “Sign in” button allowing users to store cohorts created using IDC cohort filters.
In order to simplify user interface and reduce confusion, we are planning to remove the “Sign in” feature as of July 15.
The primary motivation for removal of this feature is the unfortunate confusion we observe for the new portal users, when the mere presence of the “Sign in” button creates impression that login is required to access data from IDC.
Further, over the years since we launched IDC, we realized that the value of the cohorts stored in the portal is very limited. Typical use cases require more granular control over the selection of the cohort content: cohort filters selection is done at the level of DICOM studies, with the flexibility of the selection logic lagging far behind what can be done using idc-index or BigQuery SQL.
The decision to deprecate the login feature has been announced to the users who do log in via a prominent information message as of May 19, 2025, inviting users communicate their concerns about that decision. We have not received any such concerns since then.
To be clear, the removal of the login feature will have no effect on the user ability to navigate, visualize or download content from IDC! Still, if you do have any concerns, we invite you to share them in this thread, or send email to support@canceridc.dev.