Developing an Efficient Cancer Detection and Prediction Tool Using Convolution Neural Network Integrated with Neural Pattern Recognition (2024)

Associated Data

Data Availability Statement

Abstract

The application of computational approaches in medical science for diagnosis is made possible by the development in technical advancements connected to computer and biological sciences. The current cancer diagnosis system is becoming outmoded due to the new and rapid growth in cancer cases, and new, effective, and efficient methodologies are now required. Accurate cancer-type prediction is essential for cancer diagnosis and treatment. Understanding, diagnosing, and identifying the various types of cancer can be greatly aided by knowledge of the cancer genes. The Convolution Neural Network (CNN) and neural pattern recognition (NPR) approaches are used in this study paper to detect and predict the type of cancer. Different Convolution Neural Networks (CNNs) have been proposed by various researchers up to this point. Each model concentrated on a certain set of parameters to simulate the expression of genes. We have developed a novel CNN-NPR architecture that predicts cancer type while accounting for the tissue of origin using high-dimensional gene expression inputs. The 5000-person sample of the 1-D CNN integrated with NPR is trained and tested on the gene profile, mapping with various cancer kinds. The proposed model's accuracy of 94% suggests that the suggested combination may be useful for long-term cancer diagnosis and detection. Fewer parameters are required for the suggested model to be efficiently trained before prediction.

1. Introduction

In this 21^st century, a large amount of research is focused on the medical and health sector for improving life expectancy [1]. Quality improvement activities are more important than ever for healthcare facilities to thrive and compete in an increasingly tough healthcare market [2, 3]. To do so, health systems must be able to identify the actions that will have the most impact on their bottom line. Quality improvement programmes with a clinical, financial, or operational focus can all have a substantial influence on the overall cost of treatment, clinical outcomes, variation in care, decision support, length of stay, and other issues [4, 5]. Clinical variability, unnecessary medical mistakes, hospital-acquired infections, patient discharge delays, and diminishing cash flow are just a few of the pressing concerns confronting hospital systems across the country [6, 7]. With the advancement of science, information communication infrastructure and computer technology lead to a focus on more accurate diagnosis and prediction methods so that a promise to get good and healthy life in the future can be done [8]. The development of technology can significantly improve the quality of life; many computational techniques and tools were employed in the early stages of modelling predetection techniques. In order to fulfil the promise of living a good and healthy life in the future, the expansion of science, information communication infrastructure, and computer technology has led to an emphasis on more diagnostic and forecasting approaches. Imaging modalities will become increasingly more precise and dependable as technologies are further developed and imaging approaches continue to advance. Now apart from medical industry and corporates, academicians are also focused on the diagnosis process for enhancing the for better results. Now, big companies like Microsoft and Google are also focusing to solve the diagnosis and prediction of cancer at an early stage through the use of intelligent computational methods [9]. Microsoft's significant investment in cloud computing makes sense for a subject that requires plenty of computer power to tackle challenging issues. One method is based on the notion that biological processes like cancer are information processing systems. According to Microsoft's corporate vice president in charge of the company's basic research labs, Jeanette M. Wing, the company's sustainability attitude toward curing cancer relies on two fundamental methods. Google asserted that the system may identify more false negatives than earlier research or photos that appear normal but contain breast cancer.

Cancer has been defined as a diverse sickness with several subcategories. Prompt cancer treatment and detection are crucial criteria in early cancer research since it enhances patient medical therapy [10, 11]. Numerous research groups studied the application of ML and deep learning approaches in biochemistry and bioinformatics to classify cancer patients as high or low risk [12, 13]. Numerous research teams from the biomedical and bioinformatics fields have studied the use of machine learning (ML) techniques due to the significance of classifying cancer patients into the high- or low-risk groups. These methods have been applied in an effort to simulate the development and management of malignant diseases. Furthermore, their significance is demonstrated by the fact that ML algorithms can recognize important features in complicated datasets. Machine learning has more recently been used for cancer prognosis and prediction. This latter strategy is especially intriguing because it fits into a growing movement toward personalized, predictive medicine. As a result, cancer development and therapy have been patterned after these strategies. It is critical that ML algorithms can detect important traits in large datasets. Many of these strategies are commonly used to develop prediction models that foretell the advent of a cancer cure [14, 15].

On average, out of six deaths, 1 death is due to cancer which makes it one of the deadliest and second most cause of death [16]. One of the key reasons for this is that prostate and breast cancer prognostic models are frequently more complex and more systemic compared to those for pulmonary cancer. Developing a good early-stage lung cancer prediction system is so critical [2, 5]. Researchers are trying to predict cancer by identifying markers created by each cancer type gene such that a pattern-based learning mechanism can be built. With the help of early detection mechanisms through technology, advancement can play a vital role in enhancing better and healthy lives. The main weaknesses in tumour marker-based cancer diagnostics have been insufficient sensitivity for cancer detection and specificity to cancer. The sensitivity for tumour marker-based early cancer diagnosis is very low, and many tumour markers typically have large false-positive rates for benign liver illness. On the other hand, the majority of tumour markers have organ-specificity limitations. The use of tumour markers for screening, diagnosing, or detecting cancer recurrence might give information to doctors about the degree of cancer activity in the body. In the starting phase of modelling predetection techniques, many computational techniques and tools were used [17, 18]. The first effective approach is through an artificial neural network (ANN), which work is based on the functions of neurons in the human brain [19]. It consists of basic cells known as “neurons” which help to link the input and output through multiple layers [20]. One of the most serious diseases, brain tumours, need to be detected quickly and precisely. After collecting the image data (MRI), artificial neural network (ANN) techniques are used in the various stages of computer-aided detection systems (CAD). This method, an ANN-based model that examines the interaction of genes, nutrition, and demographic variables to predict the chance of an individual having breast cancer, may offer insight into his or her vulnerability to the disease even before the onset of cancer. A neural network that is used to detect cancer goes through two stages: training and validation. The network is first trained using a dataset. The network is then verified to determine the classifications of a new dataset after the weights of the connections between neurons are fixed. Investigated is an artificial neural network (ANN) that can function as an automated classifier. ANNs have been used in medical image processing for a variety of data classification and pattern recognition applications and have shown promise as a method for classifying breast cancer. ANN is applied in breast cancer early detection in mammography, ultrasound, MRI, and IR imaging.

The ANN continuously compares the midlayer with the desired output, so that it can reduce the error in the recognition steps. Due to less accuracy, the researcher shifted their focus to more accurate and advanced techniques like deep learning. Deep learning is a subsection of artificial intelligence having the same structure as ANN with a greater number of multilayer concepts and helps to gain more accurate results using the concept of advanced learning tools like big data. It follows the same steps; the first is the training steps where the parameter estimation is done through training by datasets [8, 14]. Then, with good training, the prediction is done with accuracy as it consists of a greater number of multilayer and uses big data. For any system, accuracy depends on how much data is used to train the network [21]. Figure 1 shows the type of tools used for cancer prediction. The way a neural network functions is similar to an adaptive process, which modifies its structure as it learns. Using neural networks, simple and complicated interactions can be easily described. They are also employed to identify patterns and groups of data. Through a learning process, an ANN can be created for a specific purpose, such as data classification and pattern categorization. Different neural network configurations come in different forms. Network topologies are generated by layering neurons and the connections that emerge both inside and between those layers.

It should be noted that the aim of cancer prediction is a little different from detection, although it helps to diagnose and helps in the detection steps [22]. In the cancer prediction methods, the points are focused as follows:

1. It is a kind of risk assessment, which leads to the prediction of cancer susceptibility

2. The prediction of recurrence and its probability in the future

3. The last points belong to the prediction of survivability

The rest of the paper has been organized into the following sections. Section 2 presents the literature review of some recent findings. Section 3 presents the proposed methodology of the present work. The results of the current work have been presented in Section 4. Finally, the concluding remarks and future scope of the work have been presented in Section 5.

2. Literature Survey

With an increase in the technology which deals with protein, genomic, and advanced imaging technology, gathering molecular-level information helps in predicting cancer more accurately. Cancer susceptibility, recurrence, and prognosis are given a lot of attention in cancer prediction. This study examines aggressive ductal carcinoma tissue zones in whole-slide images and proposes a convolutional neural network (CNN) technique to enhance the breast cancer detection procedure. Different CNN models have been proposed, each of which focuses on a different aspect of modelling gene expression data, with the goal of predicting the kind of cancer.

In a research article [23], the authors used supervised and unsupervised methods for the classification of the type of cancer. Supervised learning includes a single layer with a feedforward neural network, having backpropagation trained sets to minimize the error. In the unsupervised model, nonfuzzy and fuzzy-based c-mean clusters were used. This method shows an accuracy of 76.50%; although it is low, still it gives good results to the early stage of prediction methods.

Most of the conventional methods used in medical practices for the prediction of cancer are imperfect and lead to confusion, while diagnosis at the microgene levels helps to obtain far better results. In [24], a group of researchers uses a neural network to classify the negative correlation to identify and categorize cancer. With the help of benchmark datasets, classifiers having negative correlation characteristics are best suitable for prediction. An intelligent hybrid neural network is based on a probabilistic and discrete version of an optimization tool using particle swarm optimization [25]. The PSO-based optimization tool is used to select the proper genes and helps in dimension reduction. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is a member of the swarm intelligence family of algorithms, which draws its inspiration from naturally occurring social intelligence (SI). Although PSO has been used to handle continuous optimization issues, its use in discrete issues has not yet been properly investigated. With promising results, recent publications have proposed hybridizing PSO using local search and path-relinking algorithms. The PSO-based optimization method particle swarm optimization is used to choose the right genes and aids in dimension reduction. Similar efforts to categorize cancer using ANN were done. It gave an accuracy of 80% when implemented through a large dataset of B-cell lymphoma. Similar attempts were made to classify cancer using ANN [26, 27]. By dynamically identifying high-level representations from the datasets, CNNs not only offered great classification accuracy but also relieved the machine learning expert's load of “feature engineering” [28]. Since CNN requires a sizable dataset to become familiar with the issue [29], Harangi [30] examined the possibility of using an array of deep CNNs to improve the precision of individual models for the classification of skin cancer into different classifications. A linear classifier with a variable generated from a CNN pretrained on 1300 natural pictures dataset was shown by Kawahara et al. [31] to identify up to ten skin lesions with greater accuracy. For the classification of skin lesions, the authors of [32] presented a novel CNN architecture made up of several tracts.

The ANN topology was integrated with a multi-objective-based genetic algorithm for optimization. Accuracy was tested in a Wisconsin breast cancer database, which consists of two types of tumour classes, i.e., malignant and benign tumours [33]. Table 1 shows other literature surveys and their highlights. One more important parameter for the detection process is the requirement of datasets. Table 1 also shows the type of dataset required by the different approaches. Most of them required large or medium datasets for their training and validation, which makes the system complex. An ANN's [8] primary characteristic is its capacity for learning. The process of variable tweaking known as “training” or “learning” allows a neural network to adapt to input and subsequently generate the desired output. When learning is monitored, a teacher is there. A teacher or monitor is necessary for this kind of training to minimize errors. For each input pattern, it is believed that the precise “target” output values are known. An ANN has the capacity to acquire new skills depending on training or initial experience data. An ANN can establish its own organization once it has received the knowledge during learning time.

Perceptron networks were used in the research article [40]. This methodology was tested using 4026 genes of large B-cell lymphoma. Using this method, the classification of cancer was done with an accuracy of 93%. Although the result is good, for large datasets and complex values, the accuracy might decrease.

3. Proposed Methodology

Till now, different Convolution Neural Networks (CNN) were proposed by different researchers. Each of the models focused on the specific parameters to model gene expression. In most of the previous works, gene order was used as input, and optimization of gene order was arranged to predict with high accuracy. In this proposed methodology, CNN is integrated with neural pattern recognition. The ability to identify mathematical symbols, punctuation marks, and printed letters is known as pattern recognition. The three main activities in the traditional paradigm of pattern recognition are classification, feature extraction, and representation. This model offers a comfortable way to formalise the categorization problem, while being arbitrary and oversimplified, and it allows for the formulation and discussion of many significant difficulties. In order to automatically identify patterns and regularities in data, pattern recognition uses machine learning methods. Systems for pattern recognition can quickly and correctly identify well-known patterns.

4. Results

By only training the DL machine on tumour samples and then looking for genes related to cancer, previous studies either ignored the tissues of origin when classifying tumour samples or trained two models: one with only transcription factors and the other with cancer-associated genes (tumour DL model). The data is trained with the tumour datasets only. The samples consist of data related to breast cancer, kidney tissues, liver tissues, and digestive systems. The trained and testing parameters passing through the 1-D CNN are shown in Table 2.

During the classification, the major error was found in the liver and digestive tissue database, as no proper datasets were available.

A classifier model's performance is gauged using a statistic called the ROC curve, also referred to as the receiver operating characteristics curve. The ROC curve highlights the sensitivity of the classifier model by showing the rate of true positives in relation to the rate of false positives. For classification issues at various threshold levels, the ROC curve serves as an efficiency indicator. The degree or measure of separability is represented by AUC, and ROC is a probability curve. The ROC curve's area under the curve provides insight into the advantages of applying the test to answer the underlying query. The relationship and trade-off between sensitivity and specificity are typically represented graphically using ROC curves.

The NPR results are shown in Figure 5. Almost the best results are obtained and validated through the ROC. True-positive and false-positive rates have been observed in the figure. By comparing the rate of true positives to the rate of false positives, the ROC curve demonstrates the classifier model's sensitivities. The ROC curve acts as an efficiency measure for classification problems at different threshold levels. AUC represents the level or measure of separability, and ROC is a probability curve. It shows how effectively the model can distinguish between different categories. The benefits of using the test to resolve the actual query are revealed by the area under the ROC curve.

The result error histogram shows that the values are accurate. The errors are shown in Figure 6.

The weight for all the different datasets like liver, kidney, breast, and digestive is shown as inputs 1, 2, 3, and 4 in Figure 7. The hit matrix (Figure 8) shows the major chance of predicting the pattern value accurately. In this case, the max value is between 9 and 10 which is 4 with an accuracy of 94%.

The relation between weight 1 and weight 2 is shown in Figure 9. This indicates that weights play a vital role in the neural network system to identify the relation between different parameters as shown in Figure 9.

Now, the simulation is performed for different datasets for getting the accuracy of the system. Table 3 shows the accuracy with different datasets.

One of the most horrible diseases is cancer. Cancer diagnosis is critical in the early stages of the disease for proper therapy. The goal of earlier cancer diagnosis is to identify symptomatic individuals as soon as possible to give them the best chance of a successful course of treatment. By delivering care at the earliest possible stage, early diagnosis improves cancer outcomes, making it a crucial public health approach in all contexts. Early diagnosis is one technique, while screening is another. It is described as the presumed detection of undiagnosed disease in a population of individuals who appear healthy and symptomatic using tests, examinations, or other processes that may be quickly and cheaply administered to the target population.

The data on cancer is made up of thousands or millions of genes. The marker level of genes is determined using a DNA microarray. Microarray gene expression data is challenging to analyse because of its unique and excessive properties. Finding relevant genes among millions of genes is a difficult undertaking. To effectively characterize tumours, machine learning and statistical techniques such as decision trees, k-nearest neighbour, support vector machines, and neural network techniques are being used [48]. Many scientists have recently expressed an interest in using neural networks to classify different cancer cells [49]. The majority of neural networks produce excellent results when it comes to accurately classifying tumour cells. But this proposed method helps to classify the data and predict cancer with an accuracy of 94%.

With advances in protein, genetic, and advanced imaging technology, it is now possible to forecast cancer more precisely by gathering molecular-level data. Most of the traditional approaches used in medical settings to forecast cancer are flawed and cause confusion, whereas microgene-level diagnostics helps to achieve far better results. According to the research, CNN models are employed for more precise classifications in various computer vision applications; therefore, it makes sense to attempt and apply them to biological datasets. For the best possible treatment, early cancer diagnosis is essential. Thousands or millions of genes make up the information about cancer. A DNA microarray is used to detect the marker level of genes.

5. Conclusion

Several academics have combined neural network approaches with optimization algorithms such as PSO to improve accuracy even more. These optimization strategies are used to minimize dimensionality, suppress search space, and hence decrease neural network training time. FLANN alone has a 63.4 percent accuracy rate, whereas PSO-FLANN has a 92.36 percent categorization rate. In order to improve the predictability of our cancer and aid in interpretation, our research covered a number of significant topics. In order to investigate a suitable approach for unstructured gene-based expressions for cancer type detection, different CNN architectures were proposed. We have introduced an original CNN-NPR architecture that takes high-dimensional gene expression inputs and predicts cancer type while taking tissue of origin into account. The samples include information on digestive systems, kidney tissues, liver tissues, and breast cancer tissues. The ROC provides and validates nearly the best outcomes. It is challenging to find significant genes among the millions of genes. Machine learning and statistical methods including decision trees, k-nearest neighbour, support vector machines, and neural network techniques are being utilised to accurately describe tumours. The proposed methodology, which had a much-simplified CNN-NPR structure and a smaller influence of tissue origin than earlier published studies, had a prediction accuracy of 94%. This enables us to use our CNN-NPR model to elucidate cancer signals for each cancer type, with the goal of future refinement leading to markers for earlier cancer identification. The number of intermediate neurons in the buried layer should be increased in future studies to improve the accuracy of neural networks. To increase the performance of the classifier, several training and learning rules can be used to train the ANN.

Data Availability

The data used in the present study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

References