Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.

<h4>Background</h4>Biomarkers are a key component of precision medicine. However, full clinical integration of biomarkers has been met with challenges, partly attributed to analytical difficulties. It has been shown that biomarker reproducibility is susceptible to data preprocessing appr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Inna Y Gong, Natalie S Fox, Vincent Huang, Paul C Boutros
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2018-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0204123&type=printable
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1850077207479713792
author Inna Y Gong
Natalie S Fox
Vincent Huang
Paul C Boutros
author_facet Inna Y Gong
Natalie S Fox
Vincent Huang
Paul C Boutros
author_sort Inna Y Gong
collection DOAJ
description <h4>Background</h4>Biomarkers are a key component of precision medicine. However, full clinical integration of biomarkers has been met with challenges, partly attributed to analytical difficulties. It has been shown that biomarker reproducibility is susceptible to data preprocessing approaches. Here, we systematically evaluated machine-learning ensembles of preprocessing methods as a general strategy to improve biomarker performance for prediction of survival from early breast cancer.<h4>Results</h4>We risk stratified breast cancer patients into either low-risk or high-risk groups based on four published hypoxia signatures (Buffa, Winter, Hu, and Sorensen), using 24 different preprocessing approaches for microarray normalization. The 24 binary risk profiles determined for each hypoxia signature were combined using a random forest to evaluate the efficacy of a preprocessing ensemble classifier. We demonstrate that the best way of merging preprocessing methods varies from signature to signature, and that there is likely no 'best' preprocessing pipeline that is universal across datasets, highlighting the need to evaluate ensembles of preprocessing algorithms. Further, we developed novel signatures for each preprocessing method and the risk classifications from each were incorporated in a meta-random forest model. Interestingly, the classification of these biomarkers and its ensemble show striking consistency, demonstrating that similar intrinsic biological information are being faithfully represented. As such, these classification patterns further confirm that there is a subset of patients whose prognosis is consistently challenging to predict.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Performance of different prognostic signatures varies with pre-processing method. A simple classifier by unanimous voting of classifications is a reliable way of improving on single preprocessing methods. Future signatures will likely require integration of intrinsic and extrinsic clinico-pathological variables to better predict disease-related outcomes.
format Article
id doaj-art-d925d4f45dcc4ec6889e8b1cf6fd76ae
institution DOAJ
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2018-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-d925d4f45dcc4ec6889e8b1cf6fd76ae2025-08-20T02:45:50ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032018-01-01139e020412310.1371/journal.pone.0204123Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.Inna Y GongNatalie S FoxVincent HuangPaul C Boutros<h4>Background</h4>Biomarkers are a key component of precision medicine. However, full clinical integration of biomarkers has been met with challenges, partly attributed to analytical difficulties. It has been shown that biomarker reproducibility is susceptible to data preprocessing approaches. Here, we systematically evaluated machine-learning ensembles of preprocessing methods as a general strategy to improve biomarker performance for prediction of survival from early breast cancer.<h4>Results</h4>We risk stratified breast cancer patients into either low-risk or high-risk groups based on four published hypoxia signatures (Buffa, Winter, Hu, and Sorensen), using 24 different preprocessing approaches for microarray normalization. The 24 binary risk profiles determined for each hypoxia signature were combined using a random forest to evaluate the efficacy of a preprocessing ensemble classifier. We demonstrate that the best way of merging preprocessing methods varies from signature to signature, and that there is likely no 'best' preprocessing pipeline that is universal across datasets, highlighting the need to evaluate ensembles of preprocessing algorithms. Further, we developed novel signatures for each preprocessing method and the risk classifications from each were incorporated in a meta-random forest model. Interestingly, the classification of these biomarkers and its ensemble show striking consistency, demonstrating that similar intrinsic biological information are being faithfully represented. As such, these classification patterns further confirm that there is a subset of patients whose prognosis is consistently challenging to predict.<h4>Conclusions</h4>Performance of different prognostic signatures varies with pre-processing method. A simple classifier by unanimous voting of classifications is a reliable way of improving on single preprocessing methods. Future signatures will likely require integration of intrinsic and extrinsic clinico-pathological variables to better predict disease-related outcomes.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0204123&type=printable
spellingShingle Inna Y Gong
Natalie S Fox
Vincent Huang
Paul C Boutros
Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.
PLoS ONE
title Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.
title_full Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.
title_fullStr Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.
title_full_unstemmed Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.
title_short Prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures.
title_sort prediction of early breast cancer patient survival using ensembles of hypoxia signatures
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0204123&type=printable
work_keys_str_mv AT innaygong predictionofearlybreastcancerpatientsurvivalusingensemblesofhypoxiasignatures
AT nataliesfox predictionofearlybreastcancerpatientsurvivalusingensemblesofhypoxiasignatures
AT vincenthuang predictionofearlybreastcancerpatientsurvivalusingensemblesofhypoxiasignatures
AT paulcboutros predictionofearlybreastcancerpatientsurvivalusingensemblesofhypoxiasignatures