Some observations on semi-markov models for partially censored data

Cause-specific hazard functions are employed to analyze a semi-Markov model which could be used to describe data arising from clinical trials or certain types of observational studies. The use of these hazard functions to fit a set of data arising from N possibly incomplete case histories is shown to have several notable advantages over the approach adopted by Lagakos, Sommer, and Zelen (1978).