Estimation of the failure time distribution in the presence of informative censoring

We present a method for estimating the survival curve of a continuous failure time random variable from right-censored data. Our method allows adjustment for informative censoring due to measured prognostic factors for time-to-event and censoring while simultaneously quantifying the sensitivity of the inference to residual dependence between failure and censoring due to unmeasured factors. We present the results of a simulation study and illustrate our approach using data from the AIDS Clinical Trial Group 175 study. Copyright Biometrika Trust 2002, Oxford University Press.