Multi-Study R-Learner for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Across Studies Using Statistical Machine Learning

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Shyr, Cathy, Ren, Boyu, Patil, Prasad, Parmigiani, Giovanni
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866918255620259840
author Shyr, Cathy
Ren, Boyu
Patil, Prasad
Parmigiani, Giovanni
author_facet Shyr, Cathy
Ren, Boyu
Patil, Prasad
Parmigiani, Giovanni
contents Estimating heterogeneous treatment effects (HTEs) is crucial for precision medicine. While multiple studies can improve the generalizability of results, leveraging them for estimation is statistically challenging. Existing approaches often assume identical HTEs across studies, but this may be violated due to various sources of between-study heterogeneity, including differences in study design, study populations, and data collection protocols, among others. To this end, we propose a framework for multi-study HTE estimation that accounts for between-study heterogeneity in the nuisance functions and treatment effects. Our approach, the multi-study R-learner, extends the R-learner to obtain principled statistical estimation with machine learning (ML) in the multi-study setting. It involves a data-adaptive objective function that links study-specific treatment effects with nuisance functions through membership probabilities, which enable information to be borrowed across potentially heterogeneous studies. The multi-study R-learner framework can combine data from randomized controlled trials, observational studies, or a combination of both. It's easy to implement and flexible in its ability to incorporate ML for estimating HTEs, nuisance functions, and membership probabilities. In the series estimation framework, we show that the multi-study R-learner is asymptotically normal and more efficient than the R-learner when there is between-study heterogeneity in the propensity score model under homoscedasticity. We illustrate using cancer data that the proposed method performs favorably compared to existing approaches in the presence of between-study heterogeneity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_01086
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-Study R-Learner for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Across Studies Using Statistical Machine Learning
Shyr, Cathy
Ren, Boyu
Patil, Prasad
Parmigiani, Giovanni
Methodology
Machine Learning
Estimating heterogeneous treatment effects (HTEs) is crucial for precision medicine. While multiple studies can improve the generalizability of results, leveraging them for estimation is statistically challenging. Existing approaches often assume identical HTEs across studies, but this may be violated due to various sources of between-study heterogeneity, including differences in study design, study populations, and data collection protocols, among others. To this end, we propose a framework for multi-study HTE estimation that accounts for between-study heterogeneity in the nuisance functions and treatment effects. Our approach, the multi-study R-learner, extends the R-learner to obtain principled statistical estimation with machine learning (ML) in the multi-study setting. It involves a data-adaptive objective function that links study-specific treatment effects with nuisance functions through membership probabilities, which enable information to be borrowed across potentially heterogeneous studies. The multi-study R-learner framework can combine data from randomized controlled trials, observational studies, or a combination of both. It's easy to implement and flexible in its ability to incorporate ML for estimating HTEs, nuisance functions, and membership probabilities. In the series estimation framework, we show that the multi-study R-learner is asymptotically normal and more efficient than the R-learner when there is between-study heterogeneity in the propensity score model under homoscedasticity. We illustrate using cancer data that the proposed method performs favorably compared to existing approaches in the presence of between-study heterogeneity.
title Multi-Study R-Learner for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects Across Studies Using Statistical Machine Learning
topic Methodology
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.01086