A robust meta-classification strategy for cancer detection from MS data.

We propose a novel method for phenotype identification involving a stringent noise analysis and filtering procedure followed by combining the results of several machine learning tools to produce a robust predictor. We illustrate our method on SELDI-TOF MS prostate cancer data (http://home.ccr.cancer.gov/ncifdaproteomics/ppatterns.asp). Our method identified 11 proteomic biomarkers and gave significantly improved predictions over previous analyses with these data. We were able to distinguish cancer from non-cancer cases with a sensitivity of 90.31% and a specificity of 98.81%. The proposed method can be generalized to multi-phenotype prediction and other types of data (e.g., microarray data).

A robust meta-classification strategy for cancer diagnosis from gene expression data.

One of the major challenges in cancer diagnosis from microarray data is to develop robust classification models which are independent of the analysis techniques used and can combine data from different laboratories. We propose a meta-classification scheme which uses a robust multivariate gene selection procedure and integrates the results of several machine learning tools trained on raw and pattern data. We validate our method by applying it to distinguish diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) from follicular lymphoma (FL) on two independent datasets: the HuGeneFL Affmetrixy dataset of Shipp et al. (www. genome.wi.mit.du/MPR /lymphoma) and the Hu95Av2 Affymetrix dataset (DallaFavera's laboratory, Columbia University). Our meta-classification technique achieves higher predictive accuracies than each of the individual classifiers trained on the same dataset and is robust against various data perturbations. We also find that combinations of p53 responsive genes (e.g., p53, PLK1 and CDK2) are highly predictive of the phenotype.