Liver Cancer Risk Quantification through Artificial Neural Network

Liver cancer is the sixth most common type of cancer worldwide and is the third leading cause of cancer related mortality. Several types of cancer can form in the liver. The most common type of liver cancer is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). While the exact cause of liver cancer may not be known, habits/lifestyle may increase the risk of developing the disease. Several risk prediction models for HCC are available for individuals with hepatitis B and C virus infections who are at high risk but not for general population or unknown risk. Artificial neural networks (ANN) are the mathematical algorithm, generated by computers and are widely used in the field of medicine due to its potential for diagnostic and prognostic applications. In this study an ANN model was developed, trained, and tested using the health data captured from the National Health Interview Survey to predict liver cancer risk. Results indicate that our ANN can be used to predict liver cancer risk with changes with life style and may provide a novel approach to identify patients at higher risk and can be benefited from early diagnosis.