ClustAll: An R package for patient stratification in complex diseases

PLoS Comput Biol. 2024 Dec 13;20(12):e1012656. doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012656. eCollection 2024 Dec.

Abstract

In the era of precision medicine, it is necessary to understand heterogeneity among patients with complex diseases to improve personalized prevention and management strategies. Here, we introduce ClustAll, a Bioconductor package designed for unsupervised patient stratification using clinical data. ClustAll is based on the previously validated methodology ClustAll, a clustering framework that effectively handles intricacies in clinical data, including mixed data types, missing values, and collinearity. Additionally, ClustAll stands out in its ability to identify multiple patient stratifications within the same population while ensuring their robustness. The updated implementation of ClustAll features S4 classes, parallel computing for enhanced computational efficiency, and user-friendly tools for exploring and comparing stratifications against clinical phenotypes. The performance of ClustAll has been validated using two public clinical datasets, confirming its effectiveness in patient stratification and highlighting its potential impact on clinical management. In summary, ClustAll is a powerful tool for patient stratification in personalized medicine.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Computational Biology* / methods
  • Humans
  • Phenotype
  • Precision Medicine* / methods
  • Software*

Grants and funding

This project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 847949. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe program under grant agreement No. 101070950 (X-PAND). NPP was funded by a Ramón y Cajal fellow (RYC2021-032197-I) from the MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and European Union “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR P-ER's research laboratory was supported by the Foundation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM EQU202303016287), “Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale” (ATIP AVENIR), the “Agence Nationale pour la Recherche” (ANR-18-CE14-0006-01, RHU QUID-NASH, ANR-18-IDEX-0001, ANR-22-CE14-0002) by «Émergence, Ville de Paris», by Fondation ARC and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 847949. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.