Parametric Modeling of Localized Melanoma Prognosis and Outcome

This investigation explored the most suitable parametric model for melanoma prognosis and compared it with the Cox model. Cox–Snell residuals and survival function plots were applied to assess whether the generalized gamma (GG) model was the best-fit parametric model for the data. The GG model is a powerful alternative to the Cox model in prognostic modeling. The GG model offers an advantage of explicit and flexible individualized hazard functions over the Cox model and provides a clinically useful risk assessment over time to aid clinicians in formulating patient treatment, follow-up plans, and clinical trial design and analysis.