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Training artificial neural networks directly on the concordance index for censored data using genetic algorithms.

Kalderstam, Jonas LU ; Edén, Patrik LU ; Bendahl, Pär-Ola LU ; Forsare, Carina LU orcid ; Fernö, Mårten LU and Ohlsson, Mattias LU orcid (2013) In Artificial Intelligence in Medicine 58(2). p.125-132
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The concordance index (c-index) is the standard way of evaluating the performance of prognostic models in the presence of censored data. Constructing prognostic models using artificial neural networks (ANNs) is commonly done by training on error functions which are modified versions of the c-index. Our objective was to demonstrate the capability of training directly on the c-index and to evaluate our approach compared to the Cox proportional hazards model. METHOD: We constructed a prognostic model using an ensemble of ANNs which were trained using a genetic algorithm. The individual networks were trained on a non-linear artificial data set divided into a training and test set both of size 2000, where 50% of the data was... (More)
OBJECTIVE: The concordance index (c-index) is the standard way of evaluating the performance of prognostic models in the presence of censored data. Constructing prognostic models using artificial neural networks (ANNs) is commonly done by training on error functions which are modified versions of the c-index. Our objective was to demonstrate the capability of training directly on the c-index and to evaluate our approach compared to the Cox proportional hazards model. METHOD: We constructed a prognostic model using an ensemble of ANNs which were trained using a genetic algorithm. The individual networks were trained on a non-linear artificial data set divided into a training and test set both of size 2000, where 50% of the data was censored. The ANNs were also trained on a data set consisting of 4042 patients treated for breast cancer spread over five different medical studies, 2/3 used for training and 1/3 used as a test set. A Cox model was also constructed on the same data in both cases. The two models' c-indices on the test sets were then compared. The ranking performance of the models is additionally presented visually using modified scatter plots. RESULTS: Cross validation on the cancer training set did not indicate any non-linear effects between the covariates. An ensemble of 30 ANNs with one hidden neuron was therefore used. The ANN model had almost the same c-index score as the Cox model (c-index=0.70 and 0.71, respectively) on the cancer test set. Both models identified similarly sized low risk groups with at most 10% false positives, 49 for the ANN model and 60 for the Cox model, but repeated bootstrap runs indicate that the difference was not significant. A significant difference could however be seen when applied on the non-linear synthetic data set. In that case the ANN ensemble managed to achieve a c-index score of 0.90 whereas the Cox model failed to distinguish itself from the random case (c-index=0.49). CONCLUSIONS: We have found empirical evidence that ensembles of ANN models can be optimized directly on the c-index. Comparison with a Cox model indicates that near identical performance is achieved on a real cancer data set while on a non-linear data set the ANN model is clearly superior. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
volume
58
issue
2
pages
125 - 132
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000320351800006
  • pmid:23582884
  • scopus:84878114697
  • pmid:23582884
ISSN
1873-2860
DOI
10.1016/j.artmed.2013.03.001
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4b52eea0-c8a6-4e6f-a065-44346677234d (old id 3733806)
alternative location
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23582884?dopt=Abstract
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 10:05:24
date last changed
2023-01-02 00:58:03
@article{4b52eea0-c8a6-4e6f-a065-44346677234d,
  abstract     = {{OBJECTIVE: The concordance index (c-index) is the standard way of evaluating the performance of prognostic models in the presence of censored data. Constructing prognostic models using artificial neural networks (ANNs) is commonly done by training on error functions which are modified versions of the c-index. Our objective was to demonstrate the capability of training directly on the c-index and to evaluate our approach compared to the Cox proportional hazards model. METHOD: We constructed a prognostic model using an ensemble of ANNs which were trained using a genetic algorithm. The individual networks were trained on a non-linear artificial data set divided into a training and test set both of size 2000, where 50% of the data was censored. The ANNs were also trained on a data set consisting of 4042 patients treated for breast cancer spread over five different medical studies, 2/3 used for training and 1/3 used as a test set. A Cox model was also constructed on the same data in both cases. The two models' c-indices on the test sets were then compared. The ranking performance of the models is additionally presented visually using modified scatter plots. RESULTS: Cross validation on the cancer training set did not indicate any non-linear effects between the covariates. An ensemble of 30 ANNs with one hidden neuron was therefore used. The ANN model had almost the same c-index score as the Cox model (c-index=0.70 and 0.71, respectively) on the cancer test set. Both models identified similarly sized low risk groups with at most 10% false positives, 49 for the ANN model and 60 for the Cox model, but repeated bootstrap runs indicate that the difference was not significant. A significant difference could however be seen when applied on the non-linear synthetic data set. In that case the ANN ensemble managed to achieve a c-index score of 0.90 whereas the Cox model failed to distinguish itself from the random case (c-index=0.49). CONCLUSIONS: We have found empirical evidence that ensembles of ANN models can be optimized directly on the c-index. Comparison with a Cox model indicates that near identical performance is achieved on a real cancer data set while on a non-linear data set the ANN model is clearly superior.}},
  author       = {{Kalderstam, Jonas and Edén, Patrik and Bendahl, Pär-Ola and Forsare, Carina and Fernö, Mårten and Ohlsson, Mattias}},
  issn         = {{1873-2860}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{125--132}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Artificial Intelligence in Medicine}},
  title        = {{Training artificial neural networks directly on the concordance index for censored data using genetic algorithms.}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/1552988/4023341.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.artmed.2013.03.001}},
  volume       = {{58}},
  year         = {{2013}},
}