Cure rate estimation of skin cancer patients in São Paulo, Brazil, through a cure fraction model

INTRODUCTION: In survival analysis, cure fraction models are used to estimate the proportion of patients who have not experienced the event of interest (e.g., recurrence or death). These models consider both cured and non-cured patients, allowing for a more comprehensive approach to understanding survival. Cure fraction models can be applied to analyze the survival of cancer patients. METHODS: This investigation aims to estimate the cure fraction in skin cancer patients based on the variables Treatment Type, Disease Stage, Gender, and Health Plan. The adjustment is performed using a mixture model applied to the GAMLSS regression methodology, which allows incorporating the cure fraction as a parameter in the population probability density function of the time to the event of interest. RESULTS: The results allow for the examination of the behavior of the cure fraction across different categories of the analyzed variables. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrates the feasibility of using cure fraction models to estimate the proportion of cured patients in different clinical and sociodemographic contexts, providing valuable insights for understanding survival in skin cancer patients.