GenSo-FDSS: a neural-fuzzy decision support system for pediatric ALL cancer subtype identification using gene expression data

摘要

Objective:Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common malignancy of childhood, representing nearly one third of all pediatric cancers. Currently, the treatment of pediatric ALL is centered on tailoring the intensity of the therapy applied to a patient's risk of relapse, which is linked to the type of leukemia the patient has. Hence, accurate and correct diagnosis of the various leukemia subtypes becomes an important first step in the treatment process. Recently, gene expression profiling using DNA microarrays has been shown to be a viable and accurate diagnostic tool to identify the known prognostically important ALL subtypes. Thus, there is currently a huge interest in developing autonomous classification systems for cancer diagnosis using gene expression data. This is to achieve an unbiased analysis of the data and also partly to handle the large amount of genetic information extracted from the DNA microarrays.