Parametric Estimation of the “Risk of Melanoma-Related Death” with the Recursion Formula of the Gompertz Survival Function

Parametric modelling of survival data is the only reliable method for deriving prognostic dimensions from epidemiological population data. This method has, however, a serious limitation, which has made it - in contrast to demographic studies - less popular in clinical epidemiology: its application requires great numbers of individuals at risk. Since malignant melanoma of the skin is becoming more frequent in recent years this disease is also becoming available to corresponding parametric analyses of survival.