CTR Follow-Up & Survival Analysis 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which survival analysis method accounts for patients who are lost to follow-up or have not yet experienced the event of interest?
- Person-years method
- Kaplan-Meier method (Correct answer)
- Crude survival rate
- Period analysis
Correct answer: Kaplan-Meier method
The Kaplan-Meier method uses censoring to account for patients lost to follow-up or still alive at the end of the study period.
Question 2: In the SEER program, what is the standard follow-up interval used to calculate 5-year relative survival rates?
- 3 years
- 5 years (Correct answer)
- 10 years
- 2 years
Correct answer: 5 years
SEER reports 5-year relative survival rates as the standard benchmark for comparing cancer survival across populations.
Question 3: A patient is recorded as 'vital status unknown' during follow-up. How should this be handled in survival analysis?
- Exclude from all calculations
- Censor at last known contact date (Correct answer)
- Assume the patient is alive
- Assume the patient is deceased
Correct answer: Censor at last known contact date
Patients with unknown vital status are censored at the date of last known contact to preserve data integrity.
Question 4: What does a relative survival ratio greater than 1.0 indicate?
- Cancer patients are dying faster than expected
- Cancer patients are surviving longer than the general population (Correct answer)
- The study population is too small
- There is a calculation error
Correct answer: Cancer patients are surviving longer than the general population
A relative survival ratio >1.0 suggests cancer patients are surviving longer than comparable individuals in the general population.
Question 5: Which follow-up method involves contacting the patient's physician to determine current vital status?
- Active follow-up (Correct answer)
- Passive follow-up
- Obituary search
- Death certificate linkage
Correct answer: Active follow-up
Active follow-up involves direct contact with physicians, patients, or family members to obtain current vital status.
Question 6: When calculating survival time for a patient diagnosed on June 15 who died on September 3 of the same year, what is the survival duration in months?
- 2 months
- 3 months (Correct answer)
- 4 months
- 1 month
Correct answer: 3 months
From June 15 to September 3 spans approximately 3 months (June 15 to July 15, July 15 to Aug 15, Aug 15 to Sept 3).
Question 7: What is the primary purpose of death certificate linkage in cancer registry follow-up?
- To identify new cancer diagnoses
- To passively update vital status for registered patients (Correct answer)
- To calculate incidence rates
- To verify treatment completion
Correct answer: To passively update vital status for registered patients
Death certificate linkage is a passive follow-up method that matches registry records with state death files to update vital status.
CTR Follow-Up & Survival Analysis 2
Which survival analysis method accounts for patients who are lost to follow-up or have not yet experienced the event of interest?