Some Key Issues Relating to the Reporting and Interpretation of Time-to-Event Data

Abstract

Griffiths et al recently reported that in a cohort of Australian patients with ankylosing spondylitis included in the Optimising Patient outcomes in Australian RheumatoLogy (OPAL) dataset, the median persistence (persistence defined as the time to discontinuation of treatment) was longest for patients treated with golimumab (GOL) in all lines of therapy, and shortest for those treated with etanercept (ETN).1 In drawing this conclusion, the authors have overlooked some statistical aspects relating to the reporting of time-to-event data that make it difficult to evaluate the robustness of their conclusions.