Choice and Interpretation of Statistical Tests Used When Competing Risks Are Present

In clinical cancer research, competing risks are frequently encountered. For example, individuals undergoing treatment for surgically resectable disease may experience recurrence near the removed tumor, metastatic recurrence at other sites, occurrence of second primary cancer, or death resulting from noncancer causes before any of these events. Two quantities, the cause-specific hazard function and the cumulative incidence function, are commonly...