A genetic programming-based approach for classifying pancreatic adenocarcinoma: the SICED experience

Abstract

Ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas is a cancer with a high mortality rate. Among the main reasons for this baleful prognosis is that, in most patients, this neoplasm is diagnosed at a too advanced stage. Clinical oncology research is now particularly focused on decoding the cancer molecular onset by understanding the complex biological architecture of tumor cell proliferation. In this direction, machine learning has proved to be a valid solution in many sectors of the biomedical field, thanks to its ability to mine useful knowledge by biological and genetic data. Since the major risk factor is represented by genetic predisposition, the aim of this study is to find a mathematical model describing the complex relationship existing between genetic mutations of the involved genes and the onset of the disease. To this end, an approach based on evolutionary algorithms is proposed. In particular, genetic programming is used, which allows solving a symbolic regression problem through the use of genetic algorithms. The identification of these correlations is a typical objective of the diagnostic approach and is one of the most critical and complex activities in the presence of large amounts of data that are difficult to correlate through traditional statistical techniques. The mathematical model obtained highlights the importance of the complex relationship existing between the different gene’s mutations present in the tumor tissue of the group of patients considered.