# Logistic regression and nearest-centroid classifiers

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/logistic-regression-term/  
OnCo record `logistic-regression-term` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Logistic regression is the plain linear classifier used as a baseline for subtype prediction; a nearest-centroid classifier instead assigns each sample to the subtype whose average profile it most resembles, which is how PAM50 works.

## Summary

Logistic regression models the log-odds of a binary outcome as a linear combination of inputs (Wikipedia); a nearest-centroid classifier assigns the label of the class whose mean (centroid) is closest (Wikipedia). Parker and colleagues' PAM50 predictor correlates a sample's fifty-gene profile with five subtype centroids, and using Spearman correlation on ranks makes it robust to platform, so the same classifier runs on microarray, RNA-seq and spatial pseudobulk. Deep models are compared against these because they often do no better.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-24
- Also known as: logistic regression; logistic classifier; nearest-centroid classifier; nearest centroid; centroid classifier; PAM50 centroid correlation; rank-based PAM50
- Tags: cansim-terms

## Notes

- Listed in the CanSim terms map 1.0.0 (docs/onco/terms.json, generated 2026-09-24), CC BY 4.0, attribution: CanSim project, an open, public-data-first cancer foundation-model programme; CanSim page path /terms/logistic-regression.

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_regression
- Wikipedia: nearest centroid classifier: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nearest_centroid_classifier
- Parker et al., Supervised risk predictor of breast cancer based on intrinsic subtypes (JCO 2009): https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2008.18.1370
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_regression

## Connected records

- terms: [Cancer AI vocabulary (CanSim terms map)](https://onco.cc/terms/cancer-ai-vocabulary/), [Linear probe](https://onco.cc/terms/linear-probe/), [PAM50 / intrinsic subtypes](https://onco.cc/terms/pam50/), [Ridge regression and the multilayer perceptron](https://onco.cc/terms/ridge-regression/), [Spearman rank correlation](https://onco.cc/terms/spearman-correlation/)

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