A maximum pseudo-profile likelihood estimator for the Cox model under length-biased sampling

Biometrika. 2012 Mar;99(1):199-210. doi: 10.1093/biomet/asr072. Epub 2012 Jan 27.

Abstract

This paper considers semiparametric estimation of the Cox proportional hazards model for right-censored and length-biased data arising from prevalent sampling. To exploit the special structure of length-biased sampling, we propose a maximum pseudo-profile likelihood estimator, which can handle time-dependent covariates and is consistent under covariate-dependent censoring. Simulation studies show that the proposed estimator is more efficient than its competitors. A data analysis illustrates the methods and theory.

Keywords: Approximate likelihood; Cross-sectional sampling; Product-limit estimator; Random truncation; Screening trials.