Machine-learning system ranks most effective cancer drugs

The key metric used by DRUML is drug response distance (D), which is computed using empirical markers of drug responses identified in the training set. The D metric is the difference in overall expression of markers increased in drug sensitive cells relative to markers increased in drug resistant cells within a sample. Because D is an internally normalized metric, obtained by subtracting averaged signals from two sets of phosphosites, proteins, or transcripts within a given sample, DRUML can use D to predict drug responses in a new cancer-derived sample without comparing it against a control or reference sample set.