Applications of network-based survival analysis methods for pathway detection in cancer

Gene expression data from high-throughput assays, such as microarray, are often used to predict cancer survival. Available datasets consist of a small number of samples (n patients) and a large number of genes (p predictors). Therefore, the main challenge is to cope with the high-dimensionality. Moreover, genes are co-regulated and their expression levels are expected to be highly correlated. In order to face these two issues, network based approaches can be applied. In our analysis, we compared the most recent network penalized Cox models for highdimensional survival data aimed to determine pathway structures and biomarkers involved into cancer progression. Using these network-based models, we show how to obtain a deeper understanding of the gene-regulatory networks and investigate the gene signatures related to prognosis and survival in different types of tumors. Comparisons are carried out on three real different cancer datasets.