Abstract
Objective
To evaluate precision and recall rates for the automatic extraction of information from free-text pathology reports. To assess the impact that implementation of pattern-based methods would have on cancer registration completeness.
Method
Over 300,000 electronic pathology reports were scanned for the extraction of Gleason score, Clark level and Breslow depth, by a number of Perl routines progressively enhanced by a trial-and-error method. An additional test set of 915 reports potentially containing Gleason score was used for evaluation.
Results
Values for recall and precision of over 98 and 99%, respectively, were easily reached. Potential increase in cancer staging completeness of up to 32% was proved.
Conclusions
In cancer registration, simple pattern matching applied to free-text documents can be effectively used to improve completeness and accuracy of pathology information.
To evaluate precision and recall rates for the automatic extraction of information from free-text pathology reports. To assess the impact that implementation of pattern-based methods would have on cancer registration completeness.
Method
Over 300,000 electronic pathology reports were scanned for the extraction of Gleason score, Clark level and Breslow depth, by a number of Perl routines progressively enhanced by a trial-and-error method. An additional test set of 915 reports potentially containing Gleason score was used for evaluation.
Results
Values for recall and precision of over 98 and 99%, respectively, were easily reached. Potential increase in cancer staging completeness of up to 32% was proved.
Conclusions
In cancer registration, simple pattern matching applied to free-text documents can be effectively used to improve completeness and accuracy of pathology information.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1887-1894 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Cancer Causes & Control: an international journal of studies of cancer in human populations |
Volume | 21 |
Issue number | 11 |
Early online date | 23 Jul 2010 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2010 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cancer Research
- Oncology