A Method of Analyzing Log-Normally Distributed Survival Data with Incomplete Follow-Up

A method is presented for analyzing survival data with incomplete follow-up when there is reason to suppose that the data have a translated log-normal distribution. The life table method is used to make allowances for those patients lost to observation and for tabulating the resulting survival frequencies. Modified maximum likelihood equations and short-cut procedures are presented for calculating the parameters of the general three parameter log-normal distribution from grouped data as represented by the life table.