Simplifying multivariate survival analysis using global score test methodology

Abstract

In clinical trials, the main purpose is often to compare efficacy between experimental and control treatments. Treatment comparisons often involve multiple endpoints, and this situation further complicates the analysis of survival data. In the case of tumor patients, endpoints concerning survival times include: times from tumor removal until the first, the second and the third tumor recurrences, and time to death. For each patient, these endpoints are correlated, and the estimation of the correlation between two score statistics is fundamental in derivation of overall treatment advantage. In this paper, the bivariate survival analysis method using the global score test methodology is extended to multivariate setting.