PathCNN: interpretable convolutional neural networks for survival prediction and pathway analysis applied to glioblastoma

Jung Hun Oh, Wookjin Choi, Euiseong Ko, Mingon Kang, Allen Tannenbaum, Joseph O Deasy

The authors wish it to be known that, in their opinion, Jung Hun Oh and Wookjin Choi should be regarded as Joint First Authors.

https://academic.oup.com/bioinformatics/article/37/Supplement_1/i443/6319702

An illustration of biological interpretation. (A) Grad-CAM procedure to generate class activation maps. The two images on the left bottom represent an example of the class activation maps for a sample in the cohort, which were generated from Grad-CAM procedure; (B) statistical analysis to identify significantly different pathways between the LTS and non-LTS groups. LTS, long-term survival; CNN, convolutional neural network; ReLU, rectified linear unit

Abstract

Motivation

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have achieved great success in the areas of image processing and computer vision, handling grid-structured inputs and efficiently capturing local dependencies through multiple levels of abstraction. However, a lack of interpretability remains a key barrier to the adoption of deep neural networks, particularly in predictive modeling of disease outcomes. Moreover, because biological array data are generally represented in a non-grid structured format, CNNs cannot be applied directly.

Results

To address these issues, we propose a novel method, called PathCNN, that constructs an interpretable CNN model on integrated multi-omics data using a newly defined pathway image. PathCNN showed promising predictive performance in differentiating between long-term survival (LTS) and non-LTS when applied to glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). The adoption of a visualization tool coupled with statistical analysis enabled the identification of plausible pathways associated with survival in GBM. In summary, PathCNN demonstrates that CNNs can be effectively applied to multi-omics data in an interpretable manner, resulting in promising predictive power while identifying key biological correlates of disease.Availability and implementation

The source code is freely available at: https://github.com/mskspi/PathCNN.

Published by Wookjin Choi

Assistant Professor Department of Radiation Oncology Thomas Jefferson University

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