Quantifying time-varying cause-specific hazard and subdistribution hazard ratios with competing risks data.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Diao G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8258606 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The proportional subdistribution hazards model (i.e. Fine-Gray model) has been widely used for analyzing univariate competing risks data. Recently, this model has been extended to clustered competing risks data via frailty. To the best of our knowledge, however, there has been no literature on variable selection method for such competing risks frailty models. In this paper, we propose a simple but unified procedure via a penalized h-likelihood (HL) for variable selection of fixed effects in a general class of subdistribution hazard frailty models, in which random effects may be shared or correlated. We consider three penalty functions, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), smoothly clipped absolute deviation (SCAD) and HL, in our variable selection procedure. We show that the proposed method can be easily implemented using a slight modification to existing h-likelihood estimation approaches. Numerical studies demonstrate that the proposed procedure using the HL penalty performs well, providing a higher probability of choosing the true model than LASSO and SCAD methods without losing prediction accuracy. The usefulness of the new method is illustrated using two actual datasets from multi-center clinical trials.
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Project description:Competing risks data often exist within a center in multi-center randomized clinical trials where the treatment effects or baseline risks may vary among centers. In this paper, we propose a subdistribution hazard regression model with multivariate frailty to investigate heterogeneity in treatment effects among centers from multi-center clinical trials. For inference, we develop a hierarchical likelihood (or h-likelihood) method, which obviates the need for an intractable integration over the frailty terms. We show that the profile likelihood function derived from the h-likelihood is identical to the partial likelihood, and hence it can be extended to the weighted partial likelihood for the subdistribution hazard frailty models. The proposed method is illustrated with a dataset from a multi-center clinical trial on breast cancer as well as with a simulation study. We also demonstrate how to present heterogeneity in treatment effects among centers by using a confidence interval for the frailty for each individual center and how to perform a statistical test for such heterogeneity using a restricted h-likelihood.
| S-EPMC5771528 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The Fine-Gray proportional subdistribution hazards model has been puzzling many people since its introduction. The main reason for the uneasy feeling is that the approach considers individuals still at risk for an event of cause 1 after they fell victim to the competing risk of cause 2. The subdistribution hazard and the extended risk sets, where subjects who failed of the competing risk remain in the risk set, are generally perceived as unnatural . One could say it is somewhat of a riddle why the Fine-Gray approach yields valid inference. To take away these uneasy feelings, we explore the link between the Fine-Gray and cause-specific approaches in more detail. We introduce the reduction factor as representing the proportion of subjects in the Fine-Gray risk set that has not yet experienced a competing event. In the presence of covariates, the dependence of the reduction factor on a covariate gives information on how the effect of the covariate on the cause-specific hazard and the subdistribution hazard relate. We discuss estimation and modeling of the reduction factor, and show how they can be used in various ways to estimate cumulative incidences, given the covariates. Methods are illustrated on data of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
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Project description:BackgroundThe analysis of time-to-event data can be complicated by competing risks, which are events that alter the probability of, or completely preclude the occurrence of an event of interest. This is distinct from censoring, which merely prevents us from observing the time at which the event of interest occurs. However, the censoring distribution plays a vital role in the proportional subdistribution hazards model, a commonly used method for regression analysis of time-to-event data in the presence of competing risks.MethodsWe present the equations that underlie the proportional subdistribution hazards model to highlight the way in which the censoring distribution is included in its estimation via risk set weights. By simulating competing risk data under a proportional subdistribution hazards model with different patterns of censoring, we examine the properties of the estimates from such a model when the censoring distribution is misspecified. We use an example from stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma to illustrate the issue in real data.ResultsModels that correctly specified the censoring distribution performed better than those that did not, giving lower bias and variance in the estimate of the subdistribution hazard ratio. In particular, when the covariate of interest does not affect the censoring distribution but is used in calculating risk set weights, estimates from the model based on these weights may not reflect the correct likelihood structure and therefore may have suboptimal performance.ConclusionsThe estimation of the censoring distribution can affect the accuracy and conclusions of a competing risks analysis, so it is important that this issue is considered carefully when analysing time-to-event data in the presence of competing risks.
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Project description:Bandeen-Roche and Liang (2002, Modelling multivariate failure time associations in the presence of a competing risk. Biometrika 89, 299-314.) tailored Oakes (1989, Bivariate survival models induced by frailties. Journal of the American Statistical Association 84, 487-493.)'s conditional hazard ratio to evaluate cause-specific associations in bivariate competing risks data. In many population-based family studies, one observes complex multivariate competing risks data, where the family sizes may be > 2, certain marginals may be exchangeable, and there may be multiple correlated relative pairs having a given pairwise association. Methods for bivariate competing risks data are inadequate in these settings. We show that the rank correlation estimator of Bandeen-Roche and Liang (2002) extends naturally to general clustered family structures. Consistency, asymptotic normality, and variance estimation are easily obtained with U-statistic theories. A natural by-product is an easily implemented test for constancy of the association over different time regions. In the Cache County Study on Memory in Aging, familial associations in dementia onset are of interest, accounting for death prior to dementia. The proposed methods using all available data suggest attenuation in dementia associations at later ages, which had been somewhat obscured in earlier analyses.
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Project description:We develop methods for competing risks analysis when individual event times are correlated within clusters. Clustering arises naturally in clinical genetic studies and other settings. We develop a nonparametric estimator of cumulative incidence, and obtain robust pointwise standard errors that account for within-cluster correlation. We modify the two-sample Gray and Pepe-Mori tests for correlated competing risks data, and propose a simple two-sample test of the difference in cumulative incidence at a landmark time. In simulation studies, our estimators are asymptotically unbiased, and the modified test statistics control the type I error. The power of the respective two-sample tests is differentially sensitive to the degree of correlation; the optimal test depends on the alternative hypothesis of interest and the within-cluster correlation. For purposes of illustration, we apply our methods to a family-based prospective cohort study of hereditary breast/ovarian cancer families. For women with BRCA1 mutations, we estimate the cumulative incidence of breast cancer in the presence of competing mortality from ovarian cancer, accounting for significant within-family correlation.
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Project description:This paper considers generalized linear quantile regression for competing risks data when the failure type may be missing. Two estimation procedures for the regression co-efficients, including an inverse probability weighted complete-case estimator and an augmented inverse probability weighted estimator, are discussed under the assumption that the failure type is missing at random. The proposed estimation procedures utilize supplemental auxiliary variables for predicting the missing failure type and for informing its distribution. The asymptotic properties of the two estimators are derived and their asymptotic efficiencies are compared. We show that the augmented estimator is more efficient and possesses a double robustness property against misspecification of either the model for missingness or for the failure type. The asymptotic covariances are estimated using the local functional linearity of the estimating functions. The finite sample performance of the proposed estimation procedures are evaluated through a simulation study. The methods are applied to analyze the 'Mashi' trial data for investigating the effect of formula-versus breast-feeding plus extended infant zidovudine prophylaxis on HIV-related death of infants born to HIV-infected mothers in Botswana.
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Project description:BackgroundUnder competing risks, the commonly used sub-distribution hazard ratio (SHR) is not easy to interpret clinically and is valid only under the proportional sub-distribution hazard (SDH) assumption. This paper introduces an alternative statistical measure: the restricted mean time lost (RMTL).MethodsFirst, the definition and estimation methods of the measures are introduced. Second, based on the differences in RMTLs, a basic difference test (Diff) and a supremum difference test (sDiff) are constructed. Then, the corresponding sample size estimation method is proposed. The statistical properties of the methods and the estimated sample size are evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations, and these methods are also applied to two real examples.ResultsThe simulation results show that sDiff performs well and has relatively high test efficiency in most situations. Regarding sample size calculation, sDiff exhibits good performance in various situations. The methods are illustrated using two examples.ConclusionsRMTL can meaningfully summarize treatment effects for clinical decision making, which can then be reported with the SDH ratio for competing risks data. The proposed sDiff test and the two calculated sample size formulas have wide applicability and can be considered in real data analysis and trial design.
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Project description:Mammographic screening and prophylactic surgery such as risk-reducing salpingo oophorectomy can potentially reduce breast cancer risks among mutation carriers of BRCA families. The evaluation of these interventions is usually complicated by the fact that their effects on breast cancer may change over time and by the presence of competing risks. We introduce a correlated competing risks model to model breast and ovarian cancer risks within BRCA1 families that accounts for time-varying covariates. Different parametric forms for the effects of time-varying covariates are proposed for more flexibility and a correlated gamma frailty model is specified to account for the correlated competing events.We also introduce a new ascertainment correction approach that accounts for the selection of families through probands affected with either breast or ovarian cancer, or unaffected. Our simulation studies demonstrate the good performances of our proposed approach in terms of bias and precision of the estimators of model parameters and cause-specific penetrances over different levels of familial correlations. We applied our new approach to 498 BRCA1 mutation carrier families recruited through the Breast Cancer Family Registry. Our results demonstrate the importance of the functional form of the time-varying covariate effect when assessing the role of risk-reducing salpingo oophorectomy on breast cancer. In particular, under the best fitting time-varying covariate model, the overall effect of risk-reducing salpingo oophorectomy on breast cancer risk was statistically significant in women with BRCA1 mutation.
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Project description:This paper studies the Cox model with time-varying coefficients for cause-specific hazard functions when the causes of failure are subject to missingness. Inverse probability weighted and augmented inverse probability weighted estimators are investigated. The latter is considered as a two-stage estimator by directly utilizing the inverse probability weighted estimator and through modeling available auxiliary variables to improve efficiency. The asymptotic properties of the two estimators are investigated. Hypothesis testing procedures are developed to test the null hypotheses that the covariate effects are zero and that the covariate effects are constant. We conduct simulation studies to examine the finite sample properties of the proposed estimation and hypothesis testing procedures under various settings of the auxiliary variables and the percentages of the failure causes that are missing. These simulation results demonstrate that the augmented inverse probability weighted estimators are more efficient than the inverse probability weighted estimators and that the proposed testing procedures have the expected satisfactory results in sizes and powers. The proposed methods are illustrated using the Mashi clinical trial data for investigating the effect of randomization to formula-feeding versus breastfeeding plus extended infant zidovudine prophylaxis on death due to mother-to-child HIV transmission in Botswana.
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