Screening and merging algorithm for the detection of copy-number alterations

We call change-point problem (CPP) the identification of changes in the probabilistic behavior of a sequence of observations. Solving the CPP involves detecting the number and position of such changes. In genetics the study of how and what characteristics of a individual’s genetic content might contribute to the occurrence and evolution of cancer has fundamental importance in the diagnosis and treatment of such diseases and can be formulated in the framework of chage-point analysis. In this article we propose a modification to a existing method of segmentation with the objective of producing a algorithm that is robust to a variety of sampling distributions and that is adequate for more recent method of accessing DNA copy-number which might require a restriction on the minimum length of a altered segment.