XAI-driven CatBoost multi-layer perceptron neural network for analyzing breast cancer

Abstract

Early diagnosis of breast cancer is exceptionally important in signifying the treatment results, of women’s health. The present study outlines a novel approach for analyzing breast cancer data by using the CatBoost classification model with a multi-layer perceptron neural network (CatBoost+MLP). Explainable artificial intelligence techniques are used to cohere with the proposed CatBoost with the MLP model. The proposed model aims to enhance the interpretability of predictions in breast cancer diagnosis by leveraging the benefits of CatBoost classification technique in feature identification and also contributing towards the interpretability of the decision model. The proposed CatBoost+MLP has been evaluated using the Shapley additive explanations values to analyze the feature significance in decision-making. Initially, the feature engineering is done using the analysis of variance technique to identify the significant features. The MLP model alone and the CatBoost+MLP model are being analyzed using divergent performance metrics, and the results obtained are compared with contemporary breast cancer identification techniques.