title: Multivariate survival analysis for case-control family data.
abstract: Multivariate survival data arise from case-control family studies in which the ages at disease onset for family members may be correlated. In this paper, we consider a multivariate survival model with the marginal hazard function following the proportional hazards model. We use a frailty-based approach in the spirit of Glidden and Self (1999) to account for the correlation of ages at onset among family members. Specifically, we first estimate the baseline hazard function nonparametrically by the innovation theorem, and then obtain maximum pseudolikelihood estimators for the regression and correlation parameters plugging in the baseline hazard function estimator. We establish a connection with a previously proposed generalized estimating equation-based approach. Simulation studies and an analysis of case-control family data of breast cancer illustrate the methodology's practical utility.
authors.affiliation: Program in Biostatistics and Biomathematics, Public Health Sciences Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Avenue North, M2-B500, PO Box 19024, Seattle, WA 98109-1024, USA. lih@fhcrc.org
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Malka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gorfine
mesh_terms: D017668:Age of Onset; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016019:Survival Analysis