Modelling survival rates in bilateral breast cancer

This study involves modelling hazard rates for failure from two related causes, unilateral and bilateral breast cancer in women. Of interest is the incorporation of information from cases who survived the first cause of death into the hazard for the second cause of death. Proportional hazards regression models and survival plots are used to investigate this question for breast cancer patients seen by the A. Maxwell Evans Clinic in Vancouver; a large data set was provided by the Cancer Control Agency of B.C. It is discovered that controls and cases differ in covariates important to the first cause of death. As a result, hazard functions for the two causes of death are not directly comparable. A multistate model using hazards specific to particular transitions towards death is recommended for further analysis of the survival relationships.Science, Faculty ofStatistics, Department ofGraduat