There is a huge amount of literature on statistical models for the prediction of survival after diagnosis of a wide range of diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic kidney disease. Current practice is to use prediction models based on the Cox proportional hazards model and to present those as static models for remaining lifetime a

This book introduces readers to advanced statistical methods for analyzing survival data involving correlated endpoints. In particular, it describes statistical methods for applying Cox regression to two correlated endpoints by accounting for dependence between the endpoints with the aid of copulas. The practical advantages of employing copula-based models in medical research are explained on the basis of case studies. In addition, the book focuses on clustered survival data, especially data arising from meta-analysis and multicenter analysis. Consequently, the statistical approaches presented here employ a frailty term for heterogeneity modeling. This brings the joint frailty-copula model, which incorporates a frailty term and a copula, into a statistical model. The book also discusses advanced techniques for dealing with high-dimensional gene expressions and developing personalized dynamic prediction tools under the joint frailty-copula model. To help readers apply the statistical methods to real-world data, the book provides case studies using the authors’ original R software package (freely available in CRAN). The emphasis is on clinical survival data, involving time-to-tumor progression and overall survival, collected on cancer patients. Hence, the book offers an essential reference guide for medical statisticians and provides researchers with advanced, innovative statistical tools. The book also provides a concise introduction to basic multivariate survival models.

Handbook of Survival Analysis presents modern techniques and research problems in lifetime data analysis. This area of statistics deals with time-to-event data that is complicated by censoring and the dynamic nature of events occurring in time. With chapters written by leading researchers in the field, the handbook focuses on advances in survival analysis techniques, covering classical and Bayesian approaches. It gives a complete overview of the current status of survival analysis and should inspire further research in the field. Accessible to a wide range of readers, the book provides: An introduction to various areas in survival analysis for graduate students and novices A reference to modern investigations into survival analysis for more established researchers A text or supplement for a second or advanced course in survival analysis A useful guide to statistical methods for analyzing survival data experiments for practicing statisticians

In longitudinal studies it is often of interest to investigate how a marker that is repeatedly measured in time is associated with a time to an event of interest, e.g., prostate cancer studies where longitudinal PSA level measurements are collected in conjunction with the time-to-recurrence. Joint Models for Longitudinal and Time-to-Event Data: With Applications in R provides a full treatment of random effects joint models for longitudinal and time-to-event outcomes that can be utilized to analyze such data. The content is primarily explanatory, focusing on applications of joint modeling, but sufficient mathematical details are provided to facilitate understanding of the key features of these models. All illustrations put forward can be implemented in the R programming language via the freely available package JM written by the author. All the R code used in the book is available at: http://jmr.r-forge.r-project.org/

Readers will find in the pages of this book a treatment of the statistical analysis of clustered survival data. Such data are encountered in many scientific disciplines including human and veterinary medicine, biology, epidemiology, public health and demography. A typical example is the time to death in cancer patients, with patients clustered in hospitals. Frailty models provide a powerful tool to analyze clustered survival data. In this book different methods based on the frailty model are described and it is demonstrated how they can be used to analyze clustered survival data. All programs used for these examples are available on the Springer website.

The aim of this book is to bridge the gap between standard textbook models and a range of models where the dynamic structure of the data manifests itself fully. The common denominator of such models is stochastic processes. The authors show how counting processes, martingales, and stochastic integrals fit very nicely with censored data. Beginning with standard analyses such as Kaplan-Meier plots and Cox regression, the presentation progresses to the additive hazard model and recurrent event data. Stochastic processes are also used as natural models for individual frailty; they allow sensible interpretations of a number of surprising artifacts seen in population data. The stochastic process framework is naturally connected to causality. The authors show how dynamic path analyses can incorporate many modern causality ideas in a framework that takes the time aspect seriously. To make the material accessible to the reader, a large number of practical examples, mainly from medicine, are developed in detail. Stochastic processes are introduced in an intuitive and non-technical manner. The book is aimed at investigators who use event history methods and want a better understanding of the statistical concepts. It is suitable as a textbook for graduate courses in statistics and biostatistics.

Cure Models: Methods, Applications and Implementation is the first book in the last 25 years that provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to the basics of modern cure models, including estimation, inference, and software. This book is useful for statistical researchers and graduate students, and practitioners in other disciplines to have a thorough review of modern cure model methodology and to seek appropriate cure models in applications. The prerequisites of this book include some basic knowledge of statistical modeling, survival models, and R and SAS for data analysis. The book features real-world examples from clinical trials and population-based studies and a detailed introduction to R packages, SAS macros, and WinBUGS programs to fit some cure models. The main topics covered include the foundation of statistical estimation and inference of cure models for independent and right-censored survival data, cure modeling for multivariate, recurrent-event, and competing-risks survival data, and joint modeling with longitudinal data, statistical testing for the existence and difference of cure rates and sufficient follow-up, new developments in Bayesian cure models, applications of cure models in public health research and clinical trials.