A kernel-based multilayer perceptron framework to identify pathways related to cancer stages

Abstract

Standard machine learning algorithms have limited knowledge extraction capability in discriminating cancer stages based on genomic characterizations, due to the strongly correlated nature of high-dimensional genomic data. Moreover, activation of pathways plays a crucial role in the growth and progression of cancer from early-stage to latestage. That is why we implemented a kernel-based neural network framework that integrates pathways and gene expression data using multiple kernels and discriminates early- and late-stages of cancers. Our goal is to identify the relevant molecular mechanisms of the biological processes which might be driving cancer progression. As the input of developed multilayer perceptron (MLP), we constructed kernel matrices on multiple views of expression profiles of primary tumors extracted from pathways. We used Hallmark and Pathway Interaction Database (PID) datasets to restrict the search area to interpretable solutions. We applied our algorithm to 12 cancer cohorts from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), including more than 5100 primary tumors. The results showed that our algorithm could extract meaningful and disease-specific mechanisms of cancers. We tested the predictive performance of our MLP algorithm and compared it against three existing classification algorithms, namely, random forests, support vector machines, and multiple kernel learning. Our MLP method obtained better or comparable predictive performance against these algorithms.