survivalContour: visualizing predicted survival via colored contour plots.

Abstract

Summary: Advances in survival analysis have facilitated unprecedented flexibility in data modeling, yet there remains a lack of tools for illustrating the influence of continuous covariates on predicted survival outcomes. We propose the utilization of a colored contour plot to depict the predicted survival probabilities over time. Our approach is capable of supporting conventional models, including the Cox and Fine-Gray models. However, its capability shines when coupled with cutting-edge machine learning models such as random survival forests and deep neural networks.

Availability and implementation: We provide a Shiny app at https://biostatistics.mdanderson.org/shinyapps/survivalContour/ and an R package available at https://github.com/YushuShi/survivalContour as implementations of this tool.