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Abstract:
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As a type of multivariate survival data, multistate models have a wide range of applications, notably in cancer and infectious disease progression studies. We revisit the problem of estimation of state occupation, entry and exit times in a multistate model, where various estimators have been proposed in the past under a variety of parametric, semi-parametric and nonparametric assumptions. We primarily focus on two nonparametric approaches, one using a product limit formula and the other using a fractional risk set calculation, followed by a subtraction formula to calculate the state occupation probability of a transient state. A numerical comparison between the two methods is presented using extended simulation studies. We illustrate the two approaches using a breast cancer dataset extracted from the SEER cancer registry.
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