A stochastic joint model for longitudinal and survival data with cure patients

Many medical investigations generate both repeatedly-measured (longitudinal) biomarker and survival data. One of complex issues arises when investigating the association between longitudinal and time-to-event data when there are cured patients in the population, which leads to a plateau in the survi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Abu Bakar, Mohd Rizam, A. Salah, Khalid, Ibrahim, Noor Akma, Haron, Kassim
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: CESER Publications 2009
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12867/
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/12867/1/A%20stochastic%20joint%20model%20for%20longitudinal%20and%20survival%20data%20with%20cure%20patients.pdf
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Summary:Many medical investigations generate both repeatedly-measured (longitudinal) biomarker and survival data. One of complex issues arises when investigating the association between longitudinal and time-to-event data when there are cured patients in the population, which leads to a plateau in the survival function S(t) after sufficient follow-up. Thus, usual Cox proportional hazard model Cox (1972) is not applicable since the proportional hazard assumption is violated. An alternative is to consider survival models incorporating a cure fraction. In this paper we present a new class of joint model for univariate longitudinal and survival data in presence of cure fraction. For the longitudinal model, a stochastic Integrated Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process will be presented. For the survival model a semiparametric survival function will be considered which accommodate both zero and non-zero cure fractions of the dynamic disease progression. Moreover, we consider a Bayesian approach which is motivated by the complexity of the model. Posterior and prior specification needs to accommodate parameter constraints due to the nonnegativity of the survival function. A simulation study is presented to evaluate the performance of this joint model.