A Hybrid Classification Algorithm Approach for

Breast Cancer Diagnosis

1 1 2 3 2 4
Baraa M. Abed , Khalid Shaker , Hamid A. Jalab , Hothefa Shaker , Ali Mohammed Mansoor , Ahmad F. Alwan ,
5
Ihsan Salman Al-Gburi
1
College of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Anbar, Ramadi, Iraq
2
Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya, Malaysia
3
Modern college of business and sciences, sultanate of Oman
4
College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Mathematical & Physical Sciences, University of Nizwa, sultanate of Oman
5
Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Istanbul Kemerburgaz University, Turkey
{burasoft, khalidalhity}@gmail.com,{amidjalab,ali.mansoor}@um.edu.my, hothefa.shaker@mcbs.edu.om,
ahmadfouad@unizwa.edu.om, Ihsan.algburi@ogr.kemerburgaz.edu.tr

Abstract—Early diagnosis of Breast Cancer is significantly
important to treat the disease easily therefore it is necessary to
develop techniques that can help physicians to get accurate
diagnosis. This study suggests a hybrid classification algorithm
which is based upon Genetic Algorithm (GA) and k Nearest
neighbor algorithm (kNN). GA algorithm has been used for its
primary purpose as an optimization technique for kNN by
selecting best features as well as optimization of the k value,
while the kNN is used for classification purpose. The planned
algorithm is tested by applying it on Wisconsin Breast Cancer
Dataset from UCI Repository of Machine Learning Databases
using different datasets in which the first is Wisconsin Breast
Cancer Database (WBCD) and the second one is Wisconsin
Diagnosis Breast Cancer (WDBC) which has changes in the
number of attributes and number of instances. The proposed
algorithm was measured against different classifier algorithms
on the same database. The evaluation results of the algorithm
proposed have achieved 99% accuracy.
Keywords— Breast Cancer Diagnosis; Classification algorithm;
Genetic algorithm and k Nearest Neighbor algorithm.
I. INTRODUCTION
Breast cancer (BC) is one of the major concerns nowadays
and is one of the most leading reasons of death among women
as it is highly prevalent cancer type after lungs cancer [1].
According to the report of the International Agency for
Research on Cancer (IARC), the global burden of cancer has
been increased to 14.1 million new cases along with 8.2
million deaths in 2012 [2]. Early detection of breast cancer
helps to decrease death and improve the quality of life among
patients. Hence, early detection should have an accurate and
reliable diagnosis in order to differentiate benign and
malignant tumour. Fortunately, the rapidly-developing
diagnostic techniques that make diagnosis more accurate and
the treatment more effective have contributed to the
significant reduction in the burden of the disease. Data mining
is the tool for acquiring information in the form of huge
amount of data. This technique is widely used nowadays in
health care industry [3]. Different data mining technique that
were discovered and developed include the artificial neural
network (ANN) as the commonest along with support vector
This research is supported by research grant RG312-14AFR from University
of Malaya, Malaysia.
machine (SVM), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system
(ANFIS), k nearest neighbor decision tree (DT) case-based
reasoning (CBR) and rough set theory (RST).
The most common method for breast cancer detection is
Mammography. The varying interpretation by the radiologists
about the images that are obtained from mammography has
led to the use other methods. Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology
(FNAC) is another method used for this purpose.
The aim of this study is to help breast cancer physicians in
early diagnose of the disease in patients with BC. As it is
mainly diagnosed after appearance of most of the symptoms,
even though the majority of women with BC at early stages
are asymptomatic
II. RELATED WORK
A lot of research is being done on breast cancer diagnosis
using the (WBCD) and (WDBC) dataset. Many techniques
and methods are constantly developed achieve accurate and
efficient diagnosis results. In [4], a new system was proposed
for breast cancer classification. The new system uses a hybrid
of K-means and Support Vector Machine (SVM). BC
diagnosis based on a K-NN algorithm with different distances
(Euclidean distance and Manhattan distance) had been
proposed in [5]. Breast Cancer Detection with Reduced
Feature Set in [6] have been discussed using various data
mining technique such as artificial neural network (ANN), k-
Nearest neighbor (k-NN), radial basis function neural network
(RBFNN), and SVM which are utilized for diagnosis with
feature reduction properties using Independent Component
Analysis (ICA) for reducing the one-dimensional feature
vector that is involved in the computation of an independent
component (IC). In [7] new system was proposed using k
Nearest neighbor algorithm (kNN) and Naïve Bayes with
imputation techniques which is used instead of removing the
values that are missing from the Mammographic Mass data.
The system is evaluated using different performance criteria
such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and ROC analysis.

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 TABLE I. BREAST CANCER DATASETS
Dataset No. of No. of Class1 Class2
Attributes Instances Benign Malignant
WBCD 10 699 458 241
WDBC 31 569 357 212
A hybrid combination of SVM, particle swarm optimization
(PSO), and cuckoo search (CS) in a novel machine method
was proposed in [8]. The novel method is comprised of two
phases: phase one makes use of CS for optimizing the SVM
parameter which is specially developed to identify the kernel
function best initial parameters, and the second on is the PSO
application for SVM training continuation and finding of the
best SVM parameters. Least Squares Support Vector Machine
(LS-SVM) and Differential Evolution (DE) were applied for
BC diagnosis in [9]. In [10], a two feature ranking algorithms
of the Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) system, Adaptive Neuro-
Fuzzy Inference system (ANFIS) and ANN based on PSO
were proposed for the classification of breast cancer
application. SVM are utilized in a proposed method in [11]
with its combination with feature selection for the
classification of breast cancer. [12] uses a system that utilizes
(ReliefF) algorithm for reducing the dimension data and
Bayesian network for breast cancer classification.
III. WISCONSIN BREAST CANCER DATASET
The UCI machine learning repository has been used to
download this dataset for the purpose of breast cancer
classification [13]. This dataset usage is more common among
the researchers who utilize the machine learning methods for
the classification of breast cancer. Dr. William H. Wolberg
(1989–1991) has collected them at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison Hospitals. Table 1 presents a brief
description of these datasets. Each dataset is composed of
several patterns of classification or a set of numerical features
or attributes instances. Fine needle aspiration (FNA) from
human breast cancer tissue is used to asses these features.
A. Wisconsin Breast Cancer Database (WBCD)
The dataset has 699 instances and 10 attributes including
the class attribute. One of the two possible classes are seen in
each instance; malignant or benign. Every attribute has been
represented in the form of an integer between 1 and 10. These
features include: (uniformity of cell size, clump thickness,
uniformity of cell shape, single epithelial cell size, marginal
adhesion, bare nuclei, normal nuclei, bland chromatin, along
with mitosis).
B. Wisconsin Diagnosis Breast Cancer (WDBC)
This dataset has 569 instances. It consists of 31
attributes including the class attribute. Every instance can be
either one of two possible classes; malignant or benign. The
attributes description is ten real-valued features which are
computed for each cell nucleus. These features include:
(Texture, Radius, Perimeter, Smoothness, Area, Concavity,
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Compactness, Symmetry, Concave points and Fractal
dimension). These features give a description of the
characteristics in the image of the cell nuclei [14]. The
features’ mean, standard error (SE), along with the mean of
the three largest values were calculated for every image
resulting in a total of 30 features.
IV. FEATURE SELECTION
Selection of Feature is one of the most important methods
being used in optimization approaches. The main advantage of
feature selection is the limited number of input in the
classification model which in turn, will increase performance
and the accuracy. Selection of Feature methods are divided in
to two classes, the wrapper methods and the filter methods
[15]. In Filter methods, as a pre-processing step, subsets of the
applied features are selected, and these are completely
independent of the classifier, while in Wrapper methods, the
selected features are based on classifier performance. In the
medical diagnosis of BC, a small subset of features indicates
low costs for diagnosis and tests. Fig 1 shows the meaning of
them.
V. K-NEAREST NEIGHBORS METHOD
The k-nearest neighbor’s algorithm is one of the machine
learning algorithms. It is completely supported by the idea that
“objects that are near each other will also have the same
characteristics. Thus, if you know the characteristic features of
one of the objects, you can also predict them for its nearest
neighbor.” This means that any new instance can be
categorized by the ‘k’ neighbor majority votes, in which k is
the positive odd integer.
kNN lies among one of the straight and simplest techniques
of data mining. This is an example of Memory-Based
Classification, as at the run-time, the examples of training must
be in the memory [16]. The most common method to compute
the distance is Euclidean Distance, especially in the case when
dealing with continuous values. Nearest neighbor classifiers
are a class of non-parametric methods used in statistical
classification. Fig 1 shows the K-Nearest Neighbors algorithm
steps.
• Assign value for K parameter, which represents the
number of the nearest neighbors.
• Give a new sample (y).
• Compute the distance between the (y) instance and
instances in the training.
• Choose the k-nearest neighbors of (y)
• Assign the classes of (y) to the same classes of the k-
nearest neighbors
Fig. 1. The K-Nearest Neighbors Algorithm
VI. GENETIC ALGORITHM
Genetic algorithms is a type of meta-heuristic search which
simulates the natural selection process [17]. Genetic
algorithms are related to the Evolutionary algorithms (EA)
265
larger class which is primarily used for optimization Step 11: Apply Crossover operation on the parent pair to
problem/solution generation. The Genetic Algorithm (GA) is generate two offspring chromosomes of the new (or next)
moved by the genetics of the population (including gene and generation.
heredity frequencies), along with population levelled Step 12: On each of the offspring chromosomes (generated in
evolution, as well as the inspiration by the Mendelian structure step 11) perform a mutation.
understanding (such as alleles, genes and chromosomes) along Step 13: Repeat steps 9 to 11 popsize/2 times to get a new
with the related mechanisms (including mutation and generation of size popsize.
recombination) [18]. Genetic algorithm (GA), which is Step 14: Calculate fitness value for each chromosome in the
develop by John Holland along with his collaborators in the new generation. If the best chromosome in the new generation
time between 1960s and 1970s, is an abstract or a model of has a fitness value greater than the best Individual, update the
evolution of biological which is completely supported by best Individual using the best chromosome of new generation.
Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory. There are numerous Step 15: Check whether the criterion of convergence is met, if
genetic algorithms advantages over the traditional yes then stop, otherwise go back to the step 10.
optimization algorithms, but the most noteworthy advantage is Step 16: Repeat from step 3 until number of iteration =0
the ability to deal with parallelism and complex problems.
Genetic algorithms can deal with diverse optimization types
whether the function of your objective (fitness) is non-
stationary (change with time) or stationary, continuous or
discontinuous, with random noise or linear or nonlinear. As
numerous offspring in a population (or any subgroup) behave
like independent agents, the population can discover the space
of the search in different directions concurrently. This feature
has made this technique an ideal to parallelize the algorithms
for their implementation. Different parameters along with
even diverse encoded strings groups can be controlled
simultaneously [19].
VII. PROPOSED STUDY
The steps of proposed study are discussed as follow:
Step 1: Assign N number of iteration
Step 2: Randomly generate a population of popsize no. of
chromosome. Each chromosome has length (lchrom
dimensions). The length of the chromosome is essentially
equal to noOfAttributes summed with bitsForK which is
allocated for the value of K for K-NN).
Step 3: Create folds by dividing the labelled data into subsets
Fig. 2. Block Diagram of Proposed System’s Framework.
in which one is for training and the others are for testing.
Step 4: Selection of subset features according to the
generation in step 2 A. Fold Creation
Step 5: Compute the distance between training samples and To apply cross validation technique, the entire labeled dataset
test samples according to each chromosome. is divided into mutually exclusive folds. In this study, 70-30
Step 6: For each of the test instances, find the nearest cross validation technique was used as well as multi fold
neighbor from the data set of training based upon distances technique for each iteration used. 30 percent of the labeled
calculated in previous step. data is randomly picked and used for testing and validation;
Step 7: For each of the test data, predict its class based on the this set is called \the testSet. Rest of the data is called the
nearest neighbor class in the data set of training found in step trainingSet, and is used for training purpose.
6.
Step 8: A prediction is correct when the predicted class of a B. Chromosome Representation
test data is same as actual labeled class. GA uses a population of candidate solution encoded by the
Step 9: Calculate the fitness (accuracy) by k-NN of each of chromosomes. Each of the chromosomes is an array of
the chromosomes using the objective function and save the Boolean values representing the alleles or genes. The i-th
chromosome that has the best fitness value as bestIndividual. chromosome of G-th generation can be presented by
The classification accuracy is calculated by (Number of where lchrom is the length of
correct predictions / Total number of Test data). the chromosome.
Step 10: Select a pair of chromosomes from the old (or
current) generation. This will act as the parent chromosomes.

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 E. Distance Computation

In this approach, Euclidean distance was used. To calculate

the k-nearest neighbors, the Euclidean metric distance is
normally used. Considering the two input variable case; the
lchrom
Euclidean distance amid the two input vectors p and q is
calculated as the magnitude difference in the vectors i.e. |p - q
|, Where both the data has ‘m’ dimensions i.e. p= (p1, p2… pm)
Fig. 3. Representation of chromosome. and q= (q1, q2,…,qm). The distance of Euclidean between ‘p’
The length of the chromosome is essentially equal to and ‘q’ is set up to be:
noOfAttributes (which is the features’ or attributes’ number)
summed with bitsForK (i.e. the bits number allocated for (1)
value of K for K-NN).
Thus, .
True and False Boolean values for an allele in a chromosome where d is the number of features.
signify that the corresponding feature is on and off
respectively. In general, (NNforGA) calculates distance between two
instances
C. Initialization Phase
GA is aimed at evolving a size of popsize population with the (2)
lchrom-dimensional chromosomes which are called
Individuals. These individuals are the encoding to the solution and
of candidate. i.e.
to the
optimum of global, where the i index denotes the generation G
population. The initial population should cover up the entire (3)
space of search as much as probable by randomizing alleles
uniformly of the respective individuals with True or False For the selected feature set in the
values. following way:
D. Objective Function

Fitness evaluation for each individual is performed by ,

utilizing the function of the objective which returns the where , if
individual fitness value.
= 0 , if .
In current study, a variation of NN algorithm called F. Classification
NNforGA, takes a chromosome (representing the selected
features) as a parameter. It decodes the value of and uses To classify a test instance, NN relies on its nearest neighbor
only the selected features for calculating distance between in the trainingSet. The training instance having the least
instances. The classification accuracy (which is obtained by distance from the test instance determines the class of the test
using the selected feature only) returned by NNforGA, is set instance. Mathematically, i-th test instance is classified as
as the fitness value of the chromosome. The value of K that is
used in NNforGA is decoded from last bitsForK number of where
alleles of the chromosome allocated for this purpose.

G. Performance Evaluation Criteria

2^(bitsForK-1) 2^1 2^0
Confusion matrix is a type of visualization tool which is
used commonly to check the classifiers’ accuracy in
Fig. 4. Decoding the value of K. classification [20]. This tool is used to illustrate the
relationship between the predicted classes and the actuals. The
If the decoded value is an even integer, it is increased by 1 to classification model effectiveness level is computed with
make it an odd integer.

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correct and incorrect number of classification in every variable TABLE III. OPTIMAL PARAMETER AND FEATURE SUBSET SELECTION
possible being categorized in the confusion matrix [21].
Data No. of No. of K Features Selections
The entries that are included in the confusion matrix that have Generation bit for K
certain meaning in our study context are: s
• True Negative (TN) is the correct predictions number in a WBCD 10 2 1 F1F2F3F4F5F6
benign class. WDBC 30 3 2 F1F2F56F6F7F9F10F11F12F16
F21F22F24F25F26F27F28F30
• False negative(FN) indicates the incorrect predictions
number, indicating that the class is malignant.
• False Positive(FP) is the incorrect predictions number, TABLE IV. COMPARISON WITH OTHER METHODS
indicating that the class is benign.
• True Positive(TP) is the correct predictions number in a
malignant class. REFERENCE METHOD ACCURACY (%)

H. Accuracy Computation [4] K- MEANS AND SVM 97.3

Classification accuracy is computed using the following [5] KNN 98

equation:
[6] KNN + ICA 92.5
(4)
[7] NAÏVE BAYES + KNN 81.6
Where TP and TN suggest the True Positive and True
Negative respectively, including positive and negative cases
proportion that were classified correctly. Positive cases are the [8] PSO-BASED SVM 91.3
Benign label records and negative cases are the record with
the Malignant label. FP and FN are the False Positive and [9] DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION + SVM 99.7
False Negative which include all the negative cases that were
classified incorrectly as positive and all the positive cases [10] NN+ ADAPTIVE NEURO-FUZZY 83.6
which were classified incorrectly as a negative respectively.
[11] SVM+ FEATURE SELECTION 98.1
I. Results and discussion
To assess our method effectiveness, we have performed PROPOSED KNN FOR GA 99
experiments on WBCD and WDBC. The features of
importance are selected by GA. Table (3) shows the optimal
parameter values for NNforGA approach and classification
accuracy on the testing dataset. Among the models running, it VIII. CONCLUSION
achieved the highest classification accuracy. The experiment In this study, we combined the genetic algorithm and the
results of data use 70-30% training cross validation. The k-nearest neighbor algorithm in order to design efficient
constant optimal parameter for two types of data is as classifier model for breast cancer classification. The model
following: Mutation probability=0.7, Crossover Probability was implemented on Wisconsin breast cancer data. The
=1.0, Population size=10. proposed system achieves high classification performance,
Feature selection and optimization (k) value for classifier are
performed by a genetic algorithm and the classification task
TABLE II. CONFUSION MATRIX
accomplished by k-NN algorithm. A small number of features
Predicted with only important features were selected. The proposed
algorithm was compared with different classifier algorithms.
Malignant Benign The experimental results showed the effectiveness of the
True False proposed algorithm and how it can obtain better results.
Malignant Positive(TP) Negative(FN)
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