Research Article

Comparative Analysis of the Performance of XGBoost and LightGBM Algorithms on Breast Cancer Classification

by  Muhammad Abrar Mahmud Chowdhury, Syeda Nahrin Afroz
journal cover
International Journal of Computer Applications
Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Volume 187 - Issue 120
Published: June 2026
Authors: Muhammad Abrar Mahmud Chowdhury, Syeda Nahrin Afroz
10.5120/ijcadc78eaf2df13
PDF

Muhammad Abrar Mahmud Chowdhury, Syeda Nahrin Afroz . Comparative Analysis of the Performance of XGBoost and LightGBM Algorithms on Breast Cancer Classification. International Journal of Computer Applications. 187, 120 (June 2026), 47-53. DOI=10.5120/ijcadc78eaf2df13

                        @article{ 10.5120/ijcadc78eaf2df13,
                        author  = { Muhammad Abrar Mahmud Chowdhury,Syeda Nahrin Afroz },
                        title   = { Comparative Analysis of the Performance of XGBoost and LightGBM Algorithms on Breast Cancer Classification },
                        journal = { International Journal of Computer Applications },
                        year    = { 2026 },
                        volume  = { 187 },
                        number  = { 120 },
                        pages   = { 47-53 },
                        doi     = { 10.5120/ijcadc78eaf2df13 },
                        publisher = { Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA }
                        }
                        %0 Journal Article
                        %D 2026
                        %A Muhammad Abrar Mahmud Chowdhury
                        %A Syeda Nahrin Afroz
                        %T Comparative Analysis of the Performance of XGBoost and LightGBM Algorithms on Breast Cancer Classification%T 
                        %J International Journal of Computer Applications
                        %V 187
                        %N 120
                        %P 47-53
                        %R 10.5120/ijcadc78eaf2df13
                        %I Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most prevalent types of cancer in women worldwide. Regarding deaths caused by cancer, breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality. Fine-needle aspiration (FNA) is a method for detecting breast cancer at an early stage; however, it has limitations. These limitations include a small number of samples, which could be one of the factors for diagnostic errors, and the level of experience of the person performing the procedure. The application of machine learning to solve some problems in the healthcare sector includes cancer detection using machine learning algorithms such as XGBoost and LightGBM. The two learning algorithms, XGBoost and LightGBM, are efficient machine learning algorithms that differ in terms of how they learn:level-wise learning for XGBoost and leaf-wise learning for LightGBM. We compared both XGBoost and LightGBM in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity to determine which would perform best in classification. From the results obtained in the experiments, XGBoost performed better, with an average accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of 97.03 %, 97.40%, and 96.81 %, respectively. The average accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of LightGBM were 95.59%, 94.70%, and 96.10%, respectively.

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Index Terms
Computer Science
Information Sciences
No index terms available.
Keywords

XGBoost LightGBM classification breast cancer comparison fine-needle aspiration

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