Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients

An artificial intelligence (AI) model’s performance is strongly influenced by the input features. Therefore, it is vital to find the optimal feature set. It is more crucial for the survival prediction of the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) type of brain tumor. In this study, we identify the best featu...

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Main Authors: Snehal Rajput, Rupal A Kapdi, Mehul S Raval, Mohendra Roy
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023-01-01
Series:Machine Learning: Science and Technology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-2153/acd5a9
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author Snehal Rajput
Rupal A Kapdi
Mehul S Raval
Mohendra Roy
author_facet Snehal Rajput
Rupal A Kapdi
Mehul S Raval
Mohendra Roy
author_sort Snehal Rajput
collection DOAJ
description An artificial intelligence (AI) model’s performance is strongly influenced by the input features. Therefore, it is vital to find the optimal feature set. It is more crucial for the survival prediction of the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) type of brain tumor. In this study, we identify the best feature set for predicting the survival days (SD) of GBM patients that outrank the current state-of-the-art methodologies. The proposed approach is an end-to-end AI model. This model first segments tumors from healthy brain parts in patients’ MRI images, extracts features from the segmented results, performs feature selection, and makes predictions about patients’ survival days (SD) based on selected features. The extracted features are primarily shape-based, location-based, and radiomics-based features. Additionally, patient metadata is also included as a feature. The selection methods include recursive feature elimination, permutation importance (PI), and finding the correlation between the features. Finally, we examined features’ behavior at local (single sample) and global (all the samples) levels. In this study, we find that out of 1265 extracted features, only 29 dominant features play a crucial role in predicting patients’ SD. Among these 29 features, one is metadata (age of patient), three are location-based, and the rest are radiomics features. Furthermore, we find explanations of these features using post-hoc interpretability methods to validate the model’s robust prediction and understand its decision. Finally, we analyzed the behavioral impact of the top six features on survival prediction, and the findings drawn from the explanations were coherent with the medical domain. We find that after the age of 50 years, the likelihood of survival of a patient deteriorates, and survival after 80 years is scarce. Again, for location-based features, the SD is less if the tumor location is in the central or back part of the brain. All these trends derived from the developed AI model are in sync with medically proven facts. The results show an overall 33% improvement in the accuracy of SD prediction compared to the top-performing methods of the BraTS-2020 challenge.
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spelling doaj.art-893861ea05d845dab4c8183066b1751a2023-05-30T05:59:35ZengIOP PublishingMachine Learning: Science and Technology2632-21532023-01-014202502510.1088/2632-2153/acd5a9Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patientsSnehal Rajput0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8240-3740Rupal A Kapdi1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1995-4149Mehul S Raval2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3895-1448Mohendra Roy3https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5815-3294SOT, Pandit Deendayal Energy University , PDEU Road, Gandhinagar 382007, Gujarat, IndiaInstitute of Technology, Nirma University , SG Highway, Ahmedabad 382481, Gujarat, IndiaSchool of Engineering and Applied Science, Ahmedabad University , Commerce Six Roads, Ahmedabad 380009, Gujarat, IndiaSOT, Pandit Deendayal Energy University , PDEU Road, Gandhinagar 382007, Gujarat, IndiaAn artificial intelligence (AI) model’s performance is strongly influenced by the input features. Therefore, it is vital to find the optimal feature set. It is more crucial for the survival prediction of the glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) type of brain tumor. In this study, we identify the best feature set for predicting the survival days (SD) of GBM patients that outrank the current state-of-the-art methodologies. The proposed approach is an end-to-end AI model. This model first segments tumors from healthy brain parts in patients’ MRI images, extracts features from the segmented results, performs feature selection, and makes predictions about patients’ survival days (SD) based on selected features. The extracted features are primarily shape-based, location-based, and radiomics-based features. Additionally, patient metadata is also included as a feature. The selection methods include recursive feature elimination, permutation importance (PI), and finding the correlation between the features. Finally, we examined features’ behavior at local (single sample) and global (all the samples) levels. In this study, we find that out of 1265 extracted features, only 29 dominant features play a crucial role in predicting patients’ SD. Among these 29 features, one is metadata (age of patient), three are location-based, and the rest are radiomics features. Furthermore, we find explanations of these features using post-hoc interpretability methods to validate the model’s robust prediction and understand its decision. Finally, we analyzed the behavioral impact of the top six features on survival prediction, and the findings drawn from the explanations were coherent with the medical domain. We find that after the age of 50 years, the likelihood of survival of a patient deteriorates, and survival after 80 years is scarce. Again, for location-based features, the SD is less if the tumor location is in the central or back part of the brain. All these trends derived from the developed AI model are in sync with medically proven facts. The results show an overall 33% improvement in the accuracy of SD prediction compared to the top-performing methods of the BraTS-2020 challenge.https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-2153/acd5a9explainable AImachine learningfeatures importancebrain tumor segmentationsurvival predictioninterpretability
spellingShingle Snehal Rajput
Rupal A Kapdi
Mehul S Raval
Mohendra Roy
Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients
Machine Learning: Science and Technology
explainable AI
machine learning
features importance
brain tumor segmentation
survival prediction
interpretability
title Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients
title_full Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients
title_fullStr Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients
title_full_unstemmed Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients
title_short Interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients
title_sort interpretable machine learning model to predict survival days of malignant brain tumor patients
topic explainable AI
machine learning
features importance
brain tumor segmentation
survival prediction
interpretability
url https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-2153/acd5a9
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AT mohendraroy interpretablemachinelearningmodeltopredictsurvivaldaysofmalignantbraintumorpatients