Covariance-regularized regression and classification for high-dimensional problems

In recent years, many methods have been developed for regression in high-dimensional settings. We propose covariance-regularized regression, a family of methods that use a shrunken estimate of the inverse covariance matrix of the features in order to achieve superior prediction. An estimate of the inverse covariance matrix is obtained by maximizing its log likelihood, under a multivariate normal model, subject to a constraint on its elements; this estimate is then used to estimate coefficients for the regression of the response onto the features. We show that ridge regression, the lasso, and the elastic net are special cases of covariance-regularized regression, and we demonstrate that certain previously unexplored forms of covariance-regularized regression can outperform existing methods in a range of situations. The covariance-regularized regression framework is extended to generalized linear models and linear discriminant analysis, and is used to analyze gene expression data sets with multiple class and survival outcomes.