Afthd: Bayesian Accelerated Failure Time Model for High-Dimensional Time-To Data

Abstract

Analyzing high-dimensional (HD) data with time-to-event outcomes poses a formidable challenge. The accelerated failure time (AFT) model, an alternative to the Cox proportional hazard model in survival analysis, lacks sufficient R packages for HD time-to-event data under the Bayesian paradigm. To address this gap, we develop the R package afthd. This tool facilitates advanced AFT modeling, offering Bayesian analysis for univariate and multivariable scenarios. This work includes diagnostic plots and an open-source R code for working with HD data, extending the conventional AFT model to the Bayesian framework of log-normal, Weibull, and log-logistic AFT models. The methodology is rigorously validated through simulation techniques, yielding consistent results across parametric AFT models. The application part is also performed on two different real HD liver cancer datasets, which reveals the proposed method's significance by obtaining inferences for survival estimates for the disease. Our developed package afthd is competent in working with HD time-to-event data using the conventional AFT model along with the Bayesian paradigm. Other aspects, like missing values in covariates within HD data and competing risk analysis, are also covered in this article.