A challenge when dealing with survival analysis data is accounting for a cure fraction, meaning that some subjects will never experience the event of interest. Mixture cure models have been frequently used to estimate both the probability of being cured and the time to event for the susceptible subjects, by usually assuming a parametric (logistic) form of the incidence. We propose a new estimation procedure for a parametric cure rate that relies on a preliminary smooth estimator and is independent of the model assumed for the latency. We investigate the theoretical properties of the estimators and show through simulations that, in the logistic/Cox model, presmoothing leads to more accurate results compared to the maximum likelihood estimator. To illustrate the practical use, we apply the new estimation procedure to two studies of melanoma survival data.
翻译:处理生存分析数据时遇到的一个挑战是解药分数,这意味着有些对象永远不会经历感兴趣的事件。混合治疗模型经常被用来估计治愈概率和易感染对象发生事件的时间,通常假设事故的参数(逻辑)形式。我们建议对依赖初步顺利测算器的参数治疗率采用新的估计程序,该方法独立于假定的延缓模型。我们调查估测器的理论特性,并通过模拟显示,在物流/毒性模型中,预吸能与最大估计值相比,得出更准确的结果。为了说明实际用途,我们对两次黑瘤生存数据研究采用新的估计程序。