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Topics

The slides in this page are organised in 6 chapters that cover all the topics in the course ``Survival analysis using R: an introduction'' or “Basic Skills in Bootstrap using R”.  All examples are illustrated using the R software. 

Make sure that the following R packages are installed:

  • library(survival)

  • library(eventtimedata)

Useful R functions include:

  • survfit()

  • survdiff()

  • coxph()

 

The course in slides format

Introduction and background

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • Basic definitions of survival distributions and hazard functions

  • Types of censoring

  • Parametric survival distributions

Proportional hazards regression: special topics

  • Graphical diagnostics for the Cox model

  • Regression with correlated event-time data

Non-parametric estimation of a survival distribution

This chapter covers the following topics

  • The Kaplan-Meier estimator

  • The cumulative hazard estimator

  • Estimating standard errors, including Greenwood's formula and the delta method for transformations

  • Confidence intervals and confidence bands for survival distributions

  • Alternatives to median survival: restricted mean survival

Designing a survival study

This chapter cover the following topics:

  • Power and sample size calculations for survival distributions and proportions in two groups

  • Adjusting for staggered arrival and loss to follow-up

  • Software in R for trial design

  • Fixed sample designs vs sequential designs

Significance tests with censored data

This chapter covers the following topics

  • The log-rank test for two samples

  • The Tarone-Ware family of weighted log-rank tests for non-proportional hazards

  • Tests for more than two groups

  • Stratified tests

Proportional hazards regression: basics

This chapter covers the following topics:

  • The Cox proportional hazards model

  • Partial likelihood estimation and inference

  • The link between the Cox model and the log-rank test

  • Time-varying covariates

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