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DDSM: Digital Database for Screening Mammography

The Digital Database for Screening Mammography (DDSM) is a resource for use by the mammographic image analysis research community. Primary support for this project was a grant from the Breast Cancer Research Program of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. The DDSM project is a collaborative effort involving co-p.i.s at the Massachusetts General Hospital (D. Kopans, R. Moore), the University of South Florida (K. Bowyer), and Sandia National Laboratories (P. Kegelmeyer). Additional cases from Washington University School of Medicine were provided by Peter E. Shile, MD, Assistant Professor of Radiology and Internal Medicine. Additional collaborating institutions include Wake Forest University School of Medicine (Departments of Medical Engineering and Radiology), Sacred Heart Hospital and ISMD, Incorporated. The primary purpose of the database is to facilitate sound research in the development of computer algorithms to aid in screening. Secondary purposes of the database may include the development of algorithms to aid in the diagnosis and the development of teaching or training aids. The database contains approximately 2,500 studies. Each study includes two images of each breast, along with some associated patient information (age at time of study, ACR breast density rating, subtlety rating for abnormalities, ACR keyword description of abnormalities) and image information (scanner, spatial resolution, ...). Images containing suspicious areas have associated pixel-level "ground truth" information about the locations and types of suspicious regions. Also provided are software both for accessing the mammogram and truth images and for calculating performance figures for automated image analysis algorithms.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
The DDSM has been extensively used by the research community. It is maintained at the University of South Florida for purposes of keeping it accessible on the web. Additional functionality for DDSM has been created by other research groups and is described in the following publications:
Please click here for information about the special DoD Breast Cancer Research Program mass and calcification datasets mentioned in the 2000 rfp.

The Digital Database for Screening Mammography is organized into "cases" and "volumes." A "case" is a collection of images and information corresponding to one mammography exam of one patient. A "volume" is simply a collection of cases collected together for purposes of ease of distribution. All volumes are available on 8mm tape. Normally all (or almost all) volumes are also available on-line. The README file explaining "everything" about the database is available, and many answers to questions about the database are listed below.



Note: The Digital Database for Screening Mammography (DDSM) was developed through a grant from the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program, US Army Research and Material Command DAMD17-94-J-4015.

Please mail comments, suggestions and specific mammography questions to: ddsm@bigpine.csee.usf.edu