Unstratified log-rank test and stratified log-rank test

The logrank test, or log-rank test, is a hypothesis test to compare the survival distributions of two samples. It is a nonparametric test and appropriate to use when the data are right skewed and censored (technically, the censoring must be non-informative). It is widely used in clinical trials to establish the efficacy of a new treatment in comparison with a control treatment when the measurement is the time to event (such as the time from initial treatment to a heart attack).

There are unstratified log-rank test and stratified log-rank test (as described below). In a clinical trial with stratified randomization, the stratified log-rank test is commonly used and the stratification factors used for randomization will be included in the log-rank test. 

Even for a study with time to event primary efficacy endpoint, the sample size calculation is usually based on the unstratifed log-rank test (i.e., the stratification factors are not considered). 

Log-rank test can provide a p-value for comparing the survival distributions of two samples (between two treatment groups), however, as described in an early post, "Splitting p-value and estimate of the treatment difference", the magnitude of the treatment difference (hazard ratio) needs to be calculated using Cox proportional regression - a semi-parametric method.

Unstratified log-rank test

Let S_T(t) and Sp(t) denote the survival functions for the treatment group and placebo group, respectively.

The null hypothesis

  H0: S_T(t) = Sp(t) for all t ≥ 0 “identical survival functions for both treatment groups”

is tested against the one-sided alternative hypothesis

  HA: ST(t) ≥ Sp(t) for all t ≥ 0 and S_T(t) > Sp(t) for at least some t > 0

        “survival function in the treatment group superior to the survival function in the placebo group”

The unstratified log-rank test can be conducted by SAS PROC LIFETEST where the STRATA statement includes only the treatment group variable (treat). The TIME statement includes a variable with times to event (TTE) and an indicator variable for right censoring (cnsr) with 1 representing censoring (additional options controlling the output may be added):

PROC LIFETEST DATA=dataset METHOD=KM;
TIME tte*cnsr(1);
STRATA treat;RUN;

As an output of the procedure, the rank statistic S and variance Var(S) are obtained. Under the null hypothesis, the test statistic Z = S/sqrt[Var(S)] is approximately normally distributed. The one-sided p-value is therefore obtained from normally distributed Z statistic and H0 is rejected if the p-value does not exceed the (nominal) significance level assigned to the test.

Stratified log-rank test

Let ST,k(t) and Sp,k(t) denote the survival functions for the treatment group and placebo group in stratum k, k=1,..,K, K = m1 x m2 x .. x mj where mi denotes the number of categories for stratification

factor i, 1≤ i ≤ j, respectively. The null hypothesis

  H0: ST,k(t) = Sp,k(t) for all t ≥ 0 and all k (“identical survival functions for both treatment groups in each stratum”) is tested against the one-sided alternative hypothesis

  HA: ST,k(t) ≥ Sp,k(t) for all t ≥ 0 and all k=1,..,K and ST,m(t) > Sp,m(t) for at least some t > 0 and some m (“survival function in the treatment group superior to the survival in the placebo group in at least one stratum”)

Log-rank tests are performed for each of the strata separately, obtaining the rank statistic Sk and variance Var(Sk) where k=1, 2, …, K. The stratified log-rank test statistic is constructed as Z = [S1 +…+ SK] / sqrt[Var(S1) +…+ Var(SK)]. Under the null hypothesis, Z is approximately normally distributed. The one-sided stratified log-rank p-value is therefore obtained from normally distributed Z statistic and H0 is rejected if p does not exceed the (nominal) significance level assigned to the test.

The stratified log-rank test can be conducted with SAS PROC LIFETEST where the STRATA

statement includes the j strata variables (strat_1, .., strat_j) and the GROUP option

includes the treatment variable (treat). The TIME statement includes a variable with times to event (TTE) and an indicator variable for right censoring (cnsr) with 1 representing censoring (additional options controlling the output may be added):

PROC LIFETEST DATA=dataset METHOD=KM;
TIME tte*cnsr(1);
STRATA strat_1 .. strat_j GROUP=treat;
RUN;