Predicting Survival Time of Localized Melanoma Patients Using Discrete Survival Time Method

Melanoma is the most fatal type of skin cancer. It is ranked first in death of skin cancer diseases. This study establishes a statistical model that can predict the survival time of localized melanoma patients, as a function of age at diagnosis, tumor thickness, and extension of the tumor (tumor invasion). The discrete time survival method was used to build the statistical model. The patients involved in the current study were observed from the SEER database. Patients were divided into nine groups according to age at diagnosis. Variation in survival time was found to be significant among some of the age groups.