[R] A stats question -- about survival analysis and censoring

[Max]

Geoff,

This is a tricky question. Have you done a literature search?

-Max

Geoff Russell formulated the question :
> Dear UseRs,
>
> Suppose I have data regarding smoking habits of a prospective cohort and wish
> to determine the risk ratio of colorectal cancer in the smokers compared to
> the non-smokers.  What do I do at the end of the study with people who die
> of heart disease? Can I just censor them exactly the same as people who 
> become uncontactable or who die in a plane crash?  If not, why not?
>
> I'm thinking that heart disease isn't independent of smoking even though
> a death from heart disease is probably uninformative about colorectal
> cancer risk. Hence
> I suspect simply censoring these deaths will introduce a bias, but I don't 
> know how to correct for it.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Geoff Russell -- an interested student
>
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