EVALUATING THE INFLUENCE OF FRAILTY IN SURVIVAL ANALYSIS OF CANCER PATIENTS IN NORTH-WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Not much is known about the influence of frailty along side otherexplanatory variables on cancer patients’ survival in the north-western Nigeria. In this work, the impact of variables; age sex cancer type, and frailty on patient survival has been estimated using Cox proportional hazards model. Fitting the model to the cancer data obtained from Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria, Cancer Registry Center, the results indicate that the covariates studied are relevant prognostic factors to patients’ survival. Also, presence of frailty has impact on the estimates. Female patients were found to be slightly more prone to failure than the male patients. Key words:Cancer Survival, Covariates, Frailty, Cox Proportional Hazards