title: The destructive negative binomial cure rate model with a latent activation scheme.
abstract: A new flexible cure rate survival model is developed where the initial number of competing causes of the event of interest (say lesions or altered cells) follow a compound negative binomial (NB) distribution. This model provides a realistic interpretation of the biological mechanism of the event of interest as it models a destructive process of the initial competing risk factors and records only the damaged portion of the original number of risk factors. Besides, it also accounts for the underlying mechanisms that leads tocurethrough various latent activation schemes. Our method of estimation exploits maximum likelihood (ML) tools. The methodology is illustrated on a real data set on malignant melanoma, and the finite sample behavior of parameter estimates are explored through simulation studies.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Vicente G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Cancho
authors.forename: Dipankar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bandyopadhyay
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Louzada
authors.forename: Bao
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yiqi
keywords: competing risks; cure rate models; long-term survival models; negative binomial distribution