configs:
- config_name: default
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/train-*
dataset_info:
features:
- name: volume_id
dtype: string
- name: slice_id
dtype: int32
- name: pre
dtype: image
- name: post1
dtype: image
- name: pre_series
dtype: string
- name: post1_series
dtype: string
- name: mask
dtype: image
- name: is_tumorous
dtype: bool
- name: menopause
dtype: int32
- name: race
dtype: int32
- name: er
dtype: int32
- name: pr
dtype: int32
- name: her2
dtype: int32
- name: tubule_tumor_grade
dtype: int32
- name: nuclear_tumor_grade
dtype: int32
- name: mitotic_tumor_grade
dtype: int32
- name: nottingham_grade
dtype: int32
- name: breast_density
dtype: int32
- name: recurrence
dtype: int32
splits:
- name: train
num_bytes: 27873069458
num_examples: 156202
download_size: 30304389430
dataset_size: 27873069458
license: cc-by-nc-4.0
task_categories:
- image-classification
- image-segmentation
- object-detection
language:
- en
tags:
- mri
- medical
- breast
- cancer
- tumor
pretty_name: Duke Breast Cancer MRI
size_categories:
- 100K<n<1M
DUKE-BREAST-CANCER-MRI — 2D Slice-Based Multisequence Breast MRI Dataset with Lesion Segmentation
This dataset is derived from the Duke Breast Cancer MRI collection, a large-scale breast MRI dataset with pathologically confirmed lesions, hosted on The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA). The original collection provides multi-sequence 3D breast MRI volumes with bounding-box lesion annotations and comprehensive clinical, pathological, and molecular metadata. Here, we provide a 2D slice-based version, extracted from two of the available MRI sequences per patient — pre-contrast T1-weighted (pre) and post-contrast T1-weighted (post1) — paired slice-for-slice with the corresponding lesion segmentation mask and patient-level clinical/pathological metadata. The dataset is designed for multimodal breast lesion segmentation, classification, and prognostic modeling on breast MRI.
📦 Dataset Structure
The dataset has a single train split, with each row corresponding to a single 2D axial slice from a patient's coregistered pre / post1 volumes:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
volume_id |
Unique patient/case identifier (e.g., Breast_MRI_001) |
slice_id |
Index of the axial slice within the volume |
pre |
2D pre-contrast T1-weighted MRI slice |
post1 |
2D post-contrast T1-weighted MRI slice (first post-contrast acquisition) |
pre_series |
Series UID identifier for the pre-contrast sequence |
post1_series |
Series UID identifier for the post1-contrast sequence |
mask |
2D binary lesion segmentation mask (bounding box annotation) |
is_tumorous |
Boolean — whether a lesion is present on this slice |
menopause |
Menopausal status: 0 (pre-menopausal), 1 (post-menopausal) |
race |
Patient race/ethnicity (encoded categorical) |
er |
Estrogen receptor status: 0 (negative), 1 (positive) |
pr |
Progesterone receptor status: 0 (negative), 1 (positive) |
her2 |
HER2 status: 0 (negative), 1 (positive), 2 (equivocal) |
tubule_tumor_grade |
Tubule formation grade (Nottingham): 1, 2, or 3 |
nuclear_tumor_grade |
Nuclear pleomorphism grade (Nottingham): 1, 2, or 3 |
mitotic_tumor_grade |
Mitotic count grade (Nottingham): 1, 2, or 3 |
nottingham_grade |
Combined Nottingham histologic grade: 1, 2, or 3 |
breast_density |
Breast tissue density (BI-RADS): 1, 2, 3, or 4 |
recurrence |
Binary recurrence outcome: 0 (no recurrence), 1 (recurrence) |
menopause, race, er, pr, her2, tubule_tumor_grade, nuclear_tumor_grade, mitotic_tumor_grade, nottingham_grade, breast_density, and recurrence are patient-level attributes and are therefore identical across all slices belonging to the same volume_id.
⚙️ Preprocessing
- For each patient, preprocessed pre-contrast T1 and post1-contrast T1 DICOM series were extracted and converted to image format
- Volumes were sliced into 2D axial slices; the bounding-box lesion segmentation mask was created per slice from annotated lesion regions
- Patient-level clinical and pathological metadata (
menopause,race,er,pr,her2, tumor grades,breast_density,recurrence) were broadcast from the Duke Breast Cancer MRI clinical database to every slice belonging to that patient - All slices (lesion-containing and background) were exported; use
is_tumorousto filter or balance - The following patient cases were excluded during processing:
Breast_MRI_065,Breast_MRI_120,Breast_MRI_279,Breast_MRI_596,Breast_MRI_700,Breast_MRI_433,Breast_MRI_627
🚀 Usage
from datasets import load_dataset
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
ds = load_dataset("YOUR_USERNAME/DUKE_BREAST_CANCER_MRI", split="train")
# Grab a lesion-containing slice and view both sequences plus the mask overlay
sample = next(s for s in ds if s["is_tumorous"])
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 3, figsize=(14, 4))
# Pre-contrast with mask
axes[0].imshow(sample["pre"], cmap="gray")
axes[0].imshow(np.array(sample["mask"]), cmap="jet", alpha=0.4)
axes[0].set_title("Pre-Contrast + Mask")
axes[0].axis("off")
# Post1-contrast with mask
axes[1].imshow(sample["post1"], cmap="gray")
axes[1].imshow(np.array(sample["mask"]), cmap="jet", alpha=0.4)
axes[1].set_title("Post1-Contrast + Mask")
axes[1].axis("off")
# Enhancement map (post1 - pre)
enhancement = np.array(sample["post1"]) - np.array(sample["pre"])
axes[2].imshow(enhancement, cmap="RdBu_r")
axes[2].set_title("Enhancement (Post1 - Pre)")
axes[2].axis("off")
# Clinical and pathological metadata
info_text = (
f"{sample['volume_id']} | Slice {sample['slice_id']}\n"
f"ER: {sample['er']}, PR: {sample['pr']}, HER2: {sample['her2']}\n"
f"Nottingham Grade: {sample['nottingham_grade']} | "
f"Breast Density: {sample['breast_density']}\n"
f"Recurrence: {sample['recurrence']}"
)
fig.suptitle(info_text, fontsize=10)
plt.tight_layout()
plt.show()
🏷️ Feature Descriptions
Receptor Status
Molecular markers predictive of treatment response and prognosis:
- ER (Estrogen Receptor):
0= Negative,1= Positive - PR (Progesterone Receptor):
0= Negative,1= Positive - HER2 (Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2):
0= Negative,1= Positive,2= Equivocal
Nottingham Histologic Grading System
Combined assessment of tumor differentiation and proliferation. Comprises three components, each graded 1–3:
- Tubule Formation (
tubule_tumor_grade): Percentage of tumor forming tubular structures - Nuclear Pleomorphism (
nuclear_tumor_grade): Degree of variation in nuclear size and shape - Mitotic Count (
mitotic_tumor_grade): Number of mitotic figures per high-power field
Combined Grade (nottingham_grade): Sum of components; 1–3 (favorable), 4–5 (intermediate), 6–9 (unfavorable)
Breast Density
BI-RADS density classification (tissue composition affecting lesion detectability):
1= Almost entirely fat2= Scattered fibroglandular densities3= Heterogeneously dense4= Extremely dense
Menopausal Status
0= Pre-menopausal1= Post-menopausal
Recurrence Outcome
0= No recurrence during follow-up1= Recurrence during follow-up
🧪 Use Cases
- Multimodal (pre / post1-contrast T1) breast lesion segmentation and detection
- Breast cancer receptor status (ER/PR/HER2) classification from imaging
- Pathologic grade prediction from MRI
- Prognostic modeling: predicting recurrence risk from imaging and clinical features
- Enhancement kinetics analysis: examining lesion enhancement patterns across pre/post acquisitions
- Multi-task learning combining segmentation with receptor status, grade, and recurrence prediction
- Representation learning and self-supervised pretraining for breast cancer MRI
- Breast density characterization and tissue composition analysis
⚠️ Important Notes
- Class imbalance: most slices, particularly toward the superior/inferior extremes of a volume, contain no lesion. Use
is_tumorousto filter or apply weighted sampling. - Volume-level splits: always split train/val/test at the
volume_idlevel, never at the slice level, to avoid data leakage between sets. - Lesion annotations: lesion regions are provided as bounding-box masks; voxels within the bounding box may include surrounding tissue rather than tumor proper.
- Mask-image alignment:
maskis in the same 2D slice space aspreandpost1for a given row, so no additional registration is needed to overlay it. - Missing data: a small number of cases may have incomplete clinical or pathological information; refer to the original TCIA collection for metadata details.
- Patient exclusions: seven patient cases were excluded from this release.
📚 Citation
This dataset is derived from data made available on The Cancer Imaging Archive (TCIA) under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license. If you use this dataset, please acknowledge [chehablab.com](Chehab Lab) and cite the original Duke collection:
@misc{Whissel2022,
author = {Whissel, C. M. and Georgiade, G. S. and Sinha, S. and Sinha, U. P.},
title = {Duke Breast Cancer MRI [dataset]},
year = {2022},
publisher = {The Cancer Imaging Archive},
doi = {10.7937/tcia.d8xv-ke92}
}
📜 License
This dataset is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, consistent with the source data on TCIA.
You may copy, modify, distribute, and use the data for non-commercial purposes only, provided that appropriate credit is given to the original authors, TCIA, and the Duke Breast Cancer MRI collection.
Chehab Lab @ 2026
