Diagnosing Breast Cancer with a Neural Network

• Main Author: John Cullen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of South Florida 2017-03-01
• Series: Undergraduate Journal of Mathematical Modeling: One + Two
• Online Access: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/ujmm/vol7/iss2/4/

Fine needle aspiration (FNA) is a minimally invasive biopsy technique that can be used to successfully diagnose types of cancer, including breast cancer. Immediately, it is difficult for a human to spot any trends in the cell level data gathered during a fine needle aspiration procedure. One way to predict the type of tumor a patient has, is to use a computer to develop a mathematical model based on known data. This project utilizes the Diagnostic Wisconsin Breast Cancer Database (DWBCDB) to create an accurate mathematical model that predicts the type of a patient’s tumor (Malignant or Benign). A neural network model is created in a two step-process. It is first created with random parameters, and is then refined using the data set, with known tumor types. A model with a success rate of 98% is created, which suggests that there is a high level of correlation between FNA data and the type of tumor a patient had. This approach was not capable of producing a perfect model that could be used in clinical applications.