title: A Bayesian derived network of breast pathology co-occurrence.
abstract: In this paper, we present the validation and verification of a machine-learning based Bayesian network of breast pathology co-occurrence. The present/not present occurrences of 29 common breast pathologies from 1631 pathology reports were used to build the network. All pathology reports were developed by a single pathologist. The resulting network has 25 diagnosis nodes interconnected by 40 arcs. Each arc represents a predicted co-occurrence or null co-occurrence. Model verification involved assessing the robustness of the original network structure after random exclusion of 25%, 50%, and 75% of the pathology report dataset. The structure of the network appears stable as random removal of 75% of the records in the original dataset leaves 81% of the original network intact. Model validation was primarily assessed by review of the breast pathology literature for each arc in the network. Almost all network identified co-occurrences (95%) have been published in the breast pathology literature or were verified by expert opinion. In conclusion, the Bayesian network of breast pathology co-occurrence presented here is both robust with respect to incomplete data and validated by consistency with the breast pathology literature and by expert opinion. Further, the ability to utilize a specific pathology observation to predict multiple co-current pathologies enables exploration of pathology co-occurrence patterns in an intuitive manner that may have broader application in both the breast pathologist clinical community and the breast cancer research community.
authors.affiliation: Windber Research Institute, 620 7th Street, Windber, PA 15963, USA. s.maskery@wriwindber.org
authors.forename: Susan M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Maskery
authors.forename: Hai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hooke
authors.forename: Craig D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Shriver
authors.forename: Michael N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Liebman
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity