Computational methods using genome-wide association studies to predict radiotherapy complications and to identify correlative molecular processes Journal Article


Authors: Oh, J. H.; Kerns, S.; Ostrer, H.; Powell, S. N.; Rosenstein, B.; Deasy, J. O.
Article Title: Computational methods using genome-wide association studies to predict radiotherapy complications and to identify correlative molecular processes
Abstract: The biological cause of clinically observed variability of normal tissue damage following radiotherapy is poorly understood. We hypothesized that machine/statistical learning methods using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genome-wide association studies (GWAS) would identify groups of patients of differing complication risk, and furthermore could be used to identify key biological sources of variability. We developed a novel learning algorithm, called pre-conditioned random forest regression (PRFR), to construct polygenic risk models using hundreds of SNPs, thereby capturing genomic features that confer small differential risk. Predictive models were trained and validated on a cohort of 368 prostate cancer patients for two post-radiotherapy clinical endpoints: late rectal bleeding and erectile dysfunction. The proposed method results in better predictive performance compared with existing computational methods. Gene ontology enrichment analysis and protein-protein interaction network analysis are used to identify key biological processes and proteins that were plausible based on other published studies. In conclusion, we confirm that novel machine learning methods can produce large predictive models (hundreds of SNPs), yielding clinically useful risk stratification models, as well as identifying important underlying biological processes in the radiation damage and tissue repair process. The methods are generally applicable to GWAS data and are not specific to radiotherapy endpoints. © 2017 The Author(s).
Journal Title: Scientific Reports
Volume: 7
ISSN: 2045-2322
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group  
Date Published: 2017-02-24
Start Page: 43381
Language: English
DOI: 10.1038/srep43381
PROVIDER: scopus
PMCID: PMC5324069
PUBMED: 28233873
DOI/URL:
Notes: Article -- Export Date: 3 April 2017 -- Source: Scopus
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  1. Simon Nicholas Powell
    331 Powell
  2. Jung Hun Oh
    187 Oh
  3. Joseph Owen Deasy
    524 Deasy