Inferential statistics from black hispanic breast cancer survival data

Abstract

In this paper we test the statistical probability models for breast cancer survival data for race and ethnicity. Data was collected from breast cancer patients diagnosed in United States during the years 1973-2009. We selected a stratified random sample of Black Hispanic female patients from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database to derive the statistical probability models. We used three common model building criteria which include Akaike Information Criteria (AIC), Bayesian Information Criteria (BIC), and Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) to measure the goodness of fit tests and it was found that Black Hispanic female patients survival data better fit the exponentiated exponential probability model. A novel Bayesian method was used to derive the posterior density function for the model parameters as well as to derive the predictive inference for future response. We specifically focused on Black Hispanic race. Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method was used for obtaining the summary results of posterior parameters. Additionally, we reported predictive intervals for future survival times. These findings would be of great significance in treatment planning and healthcare resource allocation. © 2014 Hafiz M. R. Khan et al.