BC_cardiotox: A cardiotoxicity dataset for breast cancer patients

The BC_cardiotox database is a result of the collaboration between the University of A Coruña and the University Hospital of A Coruña. It contains information about 531 breast cancer patients and aims to enable the scientific community in conducting new research on cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction (CTRCD). The development of this side effect has important clinical and prognostic implications, and the availability of good predictors may allow its early detection. Although some risk factors are known, they are not sufficient to predict which patients will develop CTRCD during treatment. Therefore, in clinical practice it is recommended to monitor the appearance of CTRCD through blood laboratory tests and cardiac imaging tests. The echocardiogram, which allows to assess various parameters of the structure and function of the heart, is the main diagnostic tool. The Tissue Doppler Imaging (TDI), which shows the velocity of contraction and relaxation of the cardiac muscle, can be obtained by using this technique. This information, measured before treatment, may help in the early identification of CTRCD. Since the TDI shows a velocity as a function of time, it can be preprocessed to obtain a functional datum.

For each patient, baseline clinical variables are available, as well as the preprocessed baseline TDI. The code for the preprocessing of image data is also provided, together with two TDI images for reproducibility issues. The code is implemented in the statistical software R.

Corresponding author: Beatriz Piñeiro-Lamas (b.pineiro.lamas@udc.es / b.pineiro.lamas@gmail.com)