Microcomputer-assisted univariate survival data analysis using Kaplan-Meier life table estimators

We describe a microcomputer program (KMSURV) for exploratory univariate statistical analysis of survival data which is directly applicable to the evaluation of clinical trials and to retrospective epidemiological studies of hospital registry-based data. The program calculates life-table-like information based on Kaplan-Meier's product-limit estimators of the survivorship function S(t) and provides summary measures of average survival times. In addition, two non-parametric tests for the comparison of survival distributions are performed. A report-quality, high resolution plot of the S(t) estimates for all groups being compared complements each set of analyses. KMSURV is not a simple adaptation of a mainframe statistical analysis package and, thus, it utilizes efficiently the interactive environment which is inherent in microcomputing.