Separate and Joint Analysis of Longitudinal and Survival Data Separate and Joint Analysis of Longitudinal and Survival Data

by Rajeev, Deepthi 1981-

Chemotherapy is a method used to treat cancer but it has a number of side-effects. Research conducted by the Department of Chemical Engineering at BYU involves a new method of administering chemotherapy using ultrasound waves and water-soluble capsules. The goal is to reduce the side-effects by localizing the delivery of the medication. As part of this research, a two-factor experiment was conducted on rats to test if the water-soluble capsules and ultrasound waves by themselves have an effect on tumor growth or patient survival.

Our project emphasizes the usage of Bayesian Hierarchical Models and Win-BUGS to jointly model the survival data and the longitudinal data---mass. The results of the joint analysis indicate that the use of ultrasound and water-soluble microcapsules have no negative effect on survival. In fact, there appears to be a positive effect on the survival since the rats in the ultrasound-capsule group had higher survival rates than the rats in other treatment groups. From these results, it does appear that the new technology involving ultrasound waves and microcapsules is a promising way to reduce the side-effects of chemotherapy.

It is strongly advocated that the formulation of a joint model for any longitudinal and survival data be performed. For future work for the ultrasound-microcapsule data it is recommended that joint modeling of the mass, tumor volume, and survival data be conducted to obtain additional information.