Application of Univariate Frailty Models in Modeling Survival Data with a Cured Fraction

Keywords

Cure frailty model, AFTM, Cox PH model, Melanoma cancer, Univariate frailty models, Frailty models

Abstract

Cure models have been widely used in biomedical research and clinical trials to analyze survival data, when the study population is a mixture of susceptible and non-susceptible individuals. These models assume that individuals experiencing the event of interest are homogeneous in risk. However, there remains a degree of heterogeneity induced by unobservable risk factors, which may lead to distorted results. In order to model that unobserved heterogeneity in risk among susceptible in addition to incorporation of a cured component, frailty cure models can be the most appropriate choice. This article aims to estimate the cure fraction with frailty along with the investigation of prognostic factors that influence the survival of cancer patients. A retrospective data of 285 melanoma cancer patients is analyzed without frailty to Cox PH and AFT models and with frailty to only AFT model. Model selection is ascertained using Akaike Information Criterion. Estimates are obtained by using STATA software.

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