title: Comparing Cox and parametric models in clinical studies.
abstract: Parametric models are only occasionally used in the analysis of clinical studies of survival although they may offer advantages over Cox's model. In this paper, we report experiences that we have made fitting parametric models to data sets from different clinical trials mainly performed at the Vienna University Medical School. We emphasize the role of residuals for discriminating among candidate models and judging their goodness of fit. The effect of misspecification of the baseline distribution on parameter estimates and testing has been explored. The results from parametric analyses have always been contrasted with those from Cox's model.
authors.affiliation: Department of Systems Theory, University of Teramo, Viale Crucioli 122, I-64100 Teramo, Italy. Alessandra.Nardi@akh-wien.ac.at
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nardi
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schemper
mesh_terms: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000401:mortality; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000009:adverse effects; D008175:Lung Neoplasms; D008297:Male; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents