Maximum of the weighted Kaplan–Meier tests for the two-sample censored data

Abstract In this paper, some versatile test procedures are considered, which are useful for the case where the association of survival functions is unclear. These procedures are based on a maximum of a class of the weighted Kaplan–Meier statistics. The weight functions used in the procedures account for both the censored and non-censored data points. Numerical simulations with these weight functions show that, under various levels of censoring, the proposed procedures perform well across a wide range of alternative configurations. Implementation of the proposed procedures is illustrated in a real data example. Keywords: maximum Kaplan–Meier statisticssurvival distributionsversatile test proceduresweighted log-rank statistics