| Literature DB >> 35812228 |
Debashis Ghosh1, Emily Mastej2, Rajan Jain3, Yoon Seong Choi4.
Abstract
The widespread use of machine learning algorithms in radiomics has led to a proliferation of flexible prognostic models for clinical outcomes. However, a limitation of these techniques is their black-box nature, which prevents the ability for increased mechanistic phenomenological understanding. In this article, we develop an inferential framework for estimating causal effects with radiomics data. A new challenge is that the exposure of interest is latent so that new estimation procedures are needed. We leverage a multivariate version of partial least squares for causal effect estimation. The methodology is illustrated with applications to two radiomics datasets, one in osteosarcoma and one in glioblastoma.Entities:
Keywords: latent causal effect; link-free inference; medical imaging; personalized medicine; sufficient dimension reduction
Year: 2022 PMID: 35812228 PMCID: PMC9261933 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.884708
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Front Neurosci ISSN: 1662-453X Impact factor: 5.152
Figure 1A conceptual model diagram relating confounders, radiomics and outcome variables in medical studies. The goal is to estimate the causal effect corresponding from the arrow from the “Latent variable” circle to the clinical outcome.
Figure 2Survival distribution plots for the subjects in the glioblastoma radiomics study. For all plots, the x axis represents the time in weeks and the y-axis is the survival probability. Panel (A) shows the Kaplan–Meier plot for the entire population, along with associated 95% pointwise confidence intervals. Panel (B) shows the Kaplan–Meier estimates by grade (solid = grade 2; dashed = grade 3; dotted = grade 4). In Panel (C), the survival distributions by IDH mutation status (solid = mutant; dashed = wild-type) are presented. Finally, the gender-specific survival distributions (solid = female; dashed = male) are given in (D).
Latent causal effects and associated confidence intervals in glioblastoma study.
|
|
|
|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Gender, grade | 225 | −0.19 | (−0.27, −0.08) |
| Gender, grade, IDH | 203 | −0.20 | (−0.26, −0.11) |
The estimates denote the average latent local causal effect of radiomics on survival. There are two analyses reported here. The first row denotes an analysis in which gender and grade are confounders. The second row represents an analysis in which gender, grade, and IDH mutation status are confounders. The n refers to the sample size used. The estimate is the estimated causal effect using the methods in Section 4. The 95% confidence intervals are obtained using the non-parametric bootstrap.
Figure 3A framework for viewing the radiomics measurements as mediation variables. The exposure here is a DNA mutation which leads to tumorigenesis that is captured by the imaging and radiomics feature and which leads to a clinical outcome.