Handling missing covariates in observational studies: an illustration with the assessment of prognostic factors of survival outcomes in soft-tissue or visceral sarcomas in irradiated fields (SIF).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Missing covariates are common in observational research and can lead to bias and loss of statistical power. Limited data regarding prognostic factors of survival outcomes of sarcomas in irradiated fields (SIF) are available. Because of the long lag time between irradiation of first cancer and scarcity of SIF, missing data are a critical issue when analyzing long-term outcomes. We assessed prognostic factors of overall (OS), progression-free (PFS), and metastatic-progression-free (MPFS) survivals in SIF using three methods to account for missing covariates.

Methods

We relied on the NETSARC French Sarcoma Group database, Cox (OS/PFS), and competitive hazards (MPFS) survival models. Covariates investigated were age, sex, histological subtype, tumor size, depth and gr

SUBMITTER: Huchet N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10798078 | biostudies-literature | 2024

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature