Sanda Siliņa

Sanda Siliņa


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

2Years (2025-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

View All Publications
18 February 2025 in Diagnostics
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
EBErika Bitina Barlote
Erika Bitina Barlote
DBDmitrijs Bliznuks
Dmitrijs Bliznuks
SSSanda Siliņa
Sanda Siliņa
MŠMihails Šatcs
Mihails Šatcs
EVEgils Vjaters
Egils Vjaters
Jānis GardovskisJānis Gardovskis
Jānis Gardovskis
Background/Objectives: The timely diagnostics of bladder cancer is still a challenge in clinical settings. The reliability of conventional testing methods does not reach desirable accuracy and sensitivity, and it has an invasive nature. The present study examines the application of machine learning to improve bladder cancer diagnostics by integrating miRNA expression levels, demographic routine laboratory test results, and clinical data. We proposed that merging these datasets would enhance diagnostic accuracy. Methods: This study combined molecular biology methods for liquid biopsy, routine clinical data, and application of machine learning approach for the acquired data analysis. We evaluated urinary exosome miRNA expression data in combination with patient test results, as well as clinical and demographic data using three machine learning models: Random Forest, SVM, and XGBoost classifiers. Results: Based solely on miRNA data, the SVM model achieved an ROC curve area of 0.75. Patient analysis’ clinical and demographic data obtained ROC curve area of 0.80. Combining both data types enhanced performance, resulting in an F1 score of 0.79 and an ROC of 0.85. The feature importance analysis identified key predictors, including erythrocytes in urine, age, and several miRNAs. Conclusions: Our findings indicate the potential of a multi-modal approach to improve the accuracy of bladder cancer diagnosis in a non-invasive manner.