GCRS: A hybrid graph convolutional network for risk stratification in multiple myeloma cancer patients

In this study, we present an efficient Graph Convolutional Network based Risk Stratification system (GCRS) for cancer risk-stage prediction of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) patients. GCRS is a hybrid graph convolutional network consisting of a fusion of multiple connectivity graphs that are used to learn the latent representation of topological structures among patients. This proposed risk stratification system integrates these connectivity graphs prepared from the clinical and laboratory characteristics of NDMM cancer patients for partitioning them into three cancer risk groups: low, intermediate, and high. Extensive experiments demonstrate that GCRS outperforms the existing state-of-the-art methods in terms of C-index and hazard ratio on two publicly available datasets of NDMM patients. We have statistically validated our results using the Cox Proportional-Hazards model, Kaplan-Meier analysis, and log-rank test on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). We have also evaluated the contribution of various clinical parameters as utilized by the GCRS risk stratification system using the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) analysis, an interpretability algorithm for validating AI methods. Our study reveals the utility of the deep learning approach in building a robust system for cancer risk stage prediction.