| TI: |
Title
Estimating asymptomatic duration in cancer: The AIDS connection
|
| AU: |
Author
Etzioni, R; Shen, Y |
| AF: |
Author Affiliation
Div. Public Health Sci., MP- 665, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Res.
Cent., 1124 Columbia St., Seattle, WA 98104, USA |
| SO: |
Source
STAT. MED., vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 627- 644, 1997 |
| IS: |
ISSN
0277-6715 |
| AB: |
Abstract
Many chronic diseases, including AIDS and cancer, do not manifest
themselves clinically until some time after their inception. In
studies of disease natural history, the duration of the asymptomatic
period is of interest - in AIDS, to predict the epidemic's course,
and in cancer, to develop efficient screening strategies. This
article provides a bridge between the two fields with respect
to estimation of the asymptomatic period. By adapting AIDS methodology
to cancer, the article identifies a non-parametric method for
estimating the duration of the asymptomatic period in cancer.
The method is similar to one developed by Louis et al. (Mathematical
Biosciences, 40, 111-144 (1978)), and is designed to apply to
data from a cohort of individuals, screened periodically. After
reviewing the similarities and differences between the AIDS and
cancer contexts, we develop an EM algorithm that, at convergence,
yields a maximum or saddle point of the likelihood. We investigate
the performance of the algorithm by means of a simulation study,
explore the effect of adding a smoothing step to the estimation
procedure, and adapt the method for use with a data set in which
disease prevalence is low. We apply the method to data from the
HIP breast cancer screening trial. |
| LA: |
Language
English |
| SL: |
Summary Language
English |
| PY: |
Publication Year
1997 |
| PT: |
Publication Type
Journal Article |
| DE: |
Descriptors
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; malignancy; algorithms |
| ID: |
Identifiers
epidemiology; asymptomatic infection |
| CL: |
Classification
V 22005 AIDS: Epidemiological Aspects |
| SF: |
Subfile
Virology & AIDS Abstracts |
| AN: |
Accession Number
4051322 |
