There are a great number of uncertainties in medical practice, causing considerable difficulties in medical activities such as diagnosis and prognostic prediction. Neural-fuzzy system (NFS) combines the advantages of artificial neural networks and fuzzy logic very well, and has become a new type of artificial intelligence model which is capable of acquiring knowledge from data and expressing it in the form of fuzzy rules. Because of its strong capability of classification and processing fuzzy information, NFS is more and more used in medical practice. Adaptive neural-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is one of the most popular forms of NFS. This review focuses on the use of ANFIS in medical practice.
Objective To evaluate the effect of postmastectomy radiotherapy(PMRT)on the rate of loco-regional recurrence and survival for breast cancer patients undergoing radical mastectomy with one to three positive lymph nodes. Methods The database of Pubmed, Embase, EBM Reviews-Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, CBM, CNKI, VIP, and Chinese Cancer were searched. All randomized controlled trials about postmastectomy radiotherapy on breast cancer patients with 1-3 positive lymph nodes were considered for inclusion. Revman 5.3 was used in the meta analysis. Results Four trials enrolled 1 254 breast cancer women with 1-3 positive lymph nodes were included. The studies were high quality according to the evaluations of the quality criteria. After 10 to 20 years follow-up, the results showed that, 460 patients were analyzed in the result of loco-regional recurrence, the hazard ratio (HR) was 0.23, 95%CI (0.15, 0.37), the result showed statistical difference (P＜0.000 01), and the heterogeneity was existed (P=0.09,I2=59%). One thousand two hundred and fifty-four patients were analyzed in the result of overall survival, theHR was 0.82, 95%CI (0.71, 0.93), the result showed statistical difference (P=0.002 ), and there did not existed heterogeneity (P=0.65,I2=0%). Four hundred and sixty patients were analyzed in the result of metastasis-free survival, theHR was 0.71, 95%CI (0.56, 0.90), the result showed statistical difference (P=0.005), and there did not existed heterogeneity (P=0.63,I2=0%). Nine hundred and seventy-seven patients were analyzed in the result of disease free survival, theHR was 0.74, 95%CI (0.66, 0.85), the result showed statistical difference (P＜0.000 01), and there did not existed heterogeneity (P=0.49,I2=0%). Conclusion Through this systematic review, we consider that postmastectomy radiotherapy could reduce the loco-regional recurrence and increase the overall survival for long-term.