Confidence Intervals for the Difference of Median Survival Times Using the Stratified Cox Proportional Hazards Model

Abstract

Summary The stratified Cox proportional hazards model is introduced to incorporate covariates and involve nonproportional treatment effect of two groups into the analysis and then the confidence interval estimators for the difference in median survival times of two treatments in stratified Cox model are proposed. The one is based on baseline survival functions of two groups,and the other on average survival functions of two groups. I illustrate the proposed methods with an example from a study conducted by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group in cancer of the mouth and throat. Simulations are carried out to investigate the small-sample properties of proposed methods in terms of coverage rates.