title: Application of genetic algorithm for discovery of core effective formulae in TCM clinical data.
abstract: Research on core and effective formulae (CEF) does not only summarize traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) treatment experience, it also helps to reveal the underlying knowledge in the formulation of a TCM prescription. In this paper, CEF discovery from tumor clinical data is discussed. The concepts of confidence, support, and effectiveness of the CEF are defined. Genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to find the CEF from a lung cancer dataset with 595 records from 161 patients. The results had 9 CEF with positive fitness values with 15 distinct herbs. The CEF have all had relative high average confidence and support. A herb-herb network was constructed and it shows that all the herbs in CEF are core herbs. The dataset was divided into CEF group and non-CEF group. The effective proportions of former group are significantly greater than those of latter group. A Synergy index (SI) was defined to evaluate the interaction between two herbs. There were 4 pairs of herbs with high SI values to indicate the synergy between the herbs. All the results agreed with the TCM theory, which demonstrates the feasibility of our approach.
authors.affiliation: Longhua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of TCM, Shanghai 200032, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Josiah
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Poon
authors.forename: Shaomo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Lijing
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poon
authors.forename: Lizhi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Peiqi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Daniel Man-Yuen
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Sze
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic / Q000627:therapeutic use; D016208:Databases, Factual; D062313:Databases, Pharmaceutical; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D008517:Phytotherapy
chemical_list: D000972:Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal