A Bayesian Approach for the Cox Proportional Hazards Model with Covariates Subject to Detection Limit

The research on biomarkers has been limited in its effectiveness because biomarker levels can only be measured within the thresholds of assays and laboratory instruments, a challenge referred to as a detection limit (DL) problem. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian approach to the Cox proportional...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of statistics in medical research Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 32
Main Authors Chen, Qingxia, Wu, Huiyun, Ware, Lorraine B, Koyama, Tatsuki
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Canada 31.01.2014
Subjects
Biomarker
Lung Injury
Proportional hazards models
Detection limit
Bayesian
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:The research on biomarkers has been limited in its effectiveness because biomarker levels can only be measured within the thresholds of assays and laboratory instruments, a challenge referred to as a detection limit (DL) problem. In this paper, we propose a Bayesian approach to the Cox proportional hazards model with explanatory variables subject to lower, upper, or interval DLs. We demonstrate that by formulating the time-to-event outcome using the Poisson density with counting process notation, implementing the proposed approach in the OpenBUGS and JAGS is straightforward. We have conducted extensive simulations to compare the proposed Bayesian approach to the other four commonly used methods and to evaluate its robustness with respect to the distribution assumption of the biomarkers. The proposed Bayesian approach and other methods were applied to an acute lung injury study, in which a panel of cytokine biomarkers was studied for the biomarkers' association with ventilation-free survival.
ISSN:1929-6029
1929-6029
DOI:10.6000/1929-6029.2014.03.01.5