Semiparametric Bayesian analysis of accelerated failure time models with cluster structures

In this paper, we develop a Bayesian semiparametric accelerated failure time model for survival data with cluster structures. Our model allows distributional heterogeneity across clusters and accommodates their relationships through a density ratio approach. Moreover, a nonparametric mixture of Dirichlet processes prior is placed on the baseline distribution to yield full distributional flexibility. We illustrate through simulations that our model can greatly improve estimation accuracy by effectively pooling information from multiple clusters, while taking into account the heterogeneity in their random error distributions. We also demonstrate the implementation of our method using analysis of Mayo Clinic Trial in Primary Biliary Cirrhosis.