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Multi-state models for the analysis of time-to-event data

Department of Mathematics for Science and Technology, University of Minho, Portugal, lmachado{at}mct.uminho.pt

Jacobo de Uña-Álvarez

Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Vigo, Spain

Carmen Cadarso-Suárez

Department of Statistics and Operations Research, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Per K Andersen

Department of Biostatistics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

The experience of a patient in a survival study may be modelled as a process with two states and one possible transition from an "alive" state to a "dead" state. In some studies, however, the "alive" state may be partitioned into two or more intermediate (transient) states, each of which corresponding to a particular stage of the illness. In such studies, multi-state models can be used to model the movement of patients among the various states. In these models issues, of interest include the estimation of progression rates, assessing the effects of individual risk factors, survival rates or prognostic forecasting. In this article, we review modelling approaches for multi-state models, and we focus on the estimation of quantities such as the transition probabilities and survival probabilities. Differences between these approaches are discussed, focussing on possible advantages and disadvantages for each method. We also review the existing software currently available to fit the various models and present new software developed in the form of an R library to analyse such models. Different approaches and software are illustrated using data from the Stanford heart transplant study and data from a study on breast cancer conducted in Galicia, Spain.

This version was published on April 1, 2009

Statistical Methods in Medical Research, Vol. 18, No. 2, 195-222 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0962280208092301


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