Knowledge Discovery in Neuroblastoma-related Biological Data

In this paper, we provide initial Data Mining results on four sets of genetic data, collected in the context of the new European Embryonal Tumour Pipeline project. These data sets provide different views on the genetic processes involved in the genesis and development of a specific type of tumour, known as neuroblastoma. Although the project involves other types of tumours as well, with potentially similar underlying causal processes, neuroblastoma is currently the only disease for which sufficient data has been collected to analyse. We provide results on this data using systems developed at two Data Mining groups in Europe, with the aim of introducing the different Data Mining challenges involved, and outlining the approach we intend to apply throughout the project. Our descriptions focus on the analysis of individual data sets, stemming from separate analysis platforms (e.g. Affymetrix microarrays). Additionally, we provide some pointers for doing cross-platform analysis in the future.