A terminological portrait of Breast Cancer to improve PubMed search precision

Abstract

The aim of the study is to form a set of meaningful terms to improve the precision of searches in the PubMed scientific library for information related to the early stage of breast cancer. The proposed methodology included several stages. First, an experimental array of documents retrieved from PubMed database was generated. Then two groups of terms were formed based on the documents of the array. The terms of the first group referred to the general description of the disease (general terms). The terms of the second group referred to its early stage (original terms). The terms of both groups were divided into seven categories. Next, an expert comparison was made between both groups of terms in each category. Using the methodology, the following results were obtained. The most significant terms for the general course of the disease and for the early stage were identified. The terminological portrait of breast cancer including two corresponding parts (general course and early stage) was created. The main novelty of the results obtained lies in the selection out original terms of the terminological portrait for each category. An increase in the search precision is shown when using original terms in comparison with a search based on the general terms. The using of original terms will allow medical users to retrieve the documents related to the early stage of disease.