Accounting for bias due to a non-ignorable tracing mechanism in a retrospective breast cancer cohort study

作者：Titman Andrew C^*; Lancaster Gillian A; Carmichael Katie; Scutt Diane

来源：Statistics in Medicine, 2011, 30(4): 324-334.

DOI：10.1002/sim.4118

• multi-state model
• tracing bias
• breast cancer
• pseudo-likelihood

We consider the analysis of competing risks in a retrospective breast cancer cohort study where tracing of patients is dependent on survival to a pre-specified truncation time. We demonstrate that if ignored, the observed cause-specific hazards will become distorted before the truncation time. Two approaches to account for the tracing bias are considered. First, a likelihood-based method using piecewise constant transition intensities under a Markov assumption. Second, a pseudo-likelihood method using inverse probability of tracing weights. For the breast cancer example, both methods improve the precision of estimates compared with a conventional approach based on excluding patients.

• 出版日期2011-2-20