title: Informative censoring in relative survival.
abstract: With changing the age distribution at the time of cancer diagnosis, the administrative censoring due to study end may be informative. This problem has been mentioned frequently in the relative survival field, and an estimator aiming to correct this problem has been developed. In this paper, we review the existing methods for estimation in relative survival, demonstrate their deficiencies, and propose weighting to correct both the recently introduced net survival estimator and the Ederer I estimator. Using simulations and real cancer registry data, we evaluate the magnitude of the informative censoring problem. We clarify the assumptions behind the reviewed methods and provide guidance to their usage in practice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Ljubljana, Vrazov trg 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Anamarija
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rebolj Kodre
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pohar Perme
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008545:Melanoma / Q000401:mortality; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D012042:Registries / Q000592:standards; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality
keywords: informative censoring; inverse probability weighting; net survival; relative survival ratio