USE OF THE WEI-LIN-WEISSFELD-METHOD FOR THE ANALYSIS OF A RECURRING AND A TERMINATING EVENT

We consider application of the Wei-Lin-Weissfeld (WLW) method for mult iple failure time data when analysing a disease process consisting of a recurring outcome, such as clinical progression, and a terminating o utcome, such as death. In order to adapt WLW for this situation, 'even ts' must be specified that define multiple failure times and whether t hese are censored. Various choices of events are possible, and each co rresponds to inferences about a different aspect of the underlying dis ease process. Definitions which regard the terminating outcome as a ce nsor of the recurring outcome focus on specific cause-specific hazard functions, while event definitions which make no distinction between a recurring and terminating outcome focus on hazard functions of the in duced failure times. Some event definitions require strong statistical assumptions to yield valid inferences and are not recommended. The ap plication of WLW for recurring/terminating processes is illustrated wi th the results of two recently conducted clinical trials in persons wi th HIV. (C) 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Stat. Med., Vol. 16, 925-9 40 (1997).