\name{bootkm}
\alias{bootkm}
\title{
Bootstrap Kaplan-Meier Estimates
}
\description{
Bootstraps Kaplan-Meier estimate of the probability of survival to at
least a fixed time (\code{times} variable) or the estimate of the \code{q}
quantile of the survival distribution (e.g., median survival time, the
default).
}
\usage{
bootkm(S, q=0.5, B=500, times, pr=TRUE)
}
\arguments{
\item{S}{
a \code{Surv} object for possibly right-censored survival time
}
\item{q}{
quantile of survival time, default is 0.5 for median
}
\item{B}{
number of bootstrap repetitions (default=500)
}
\item{times}{
time vector (currently only a scalar is allowed) at which to compute
survival estimates.  You may specify only one of \code{q} and \code{times}, and
if \code{times} is specified \code{q} is ignored.
}
\item{pr}{
set to \code{FALSE} to suppress printing the iteration number every 10 iterations
}}
\value{
a vector containing \code{B} bootstrap estimates
}
\section{Side Effects}{
updates \code{.Random.seed}, and, if \code{pr=TRUE}, prints progress of simulations
}
\details{
\code{bootkm} uses Therneau's \code{survfitKM} function to efficiently compute
Kaplan-Meier estimates.
}
\author{
Frank Harrell
\cr
Department of Biostatistics
\cr
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
\cr
\email{f.harrell@vanderbilt.edu}
}
\references{
Akritas MG (1986): Bootstrapping the Kaplan-Meier estimator.  JASA
81:1032--1038.
}
\seealso{
\code{\link[survival]{survfit}}, \code{\link[survival]{Surv}}, \code{\link[Design:cph]{Survival.cph}}, \code{\link[Design:cph]{Quantile.cph}}
}
\examples{
# Compute 0.95 nonparametric confidence interval for the difference in
# median survival time between females and males (two-sample problem)
set.seed(1)
library(survival)
S <- Surv(runif(200))      # no censoring
sex <- c(rep('female',100),rep('male',100))
med.female <- bootkm(S[sex=='female',], B=100) # normally B=500
med.male   <- bootkm(S[sex=='male',],   B=100)
describe(med.female-med.male)
quantile(med.female-med.male, c(.025,.975), na.rm=TRUE)
# na.rm needed because some bootstrap estimates of median survival
# time may be missing when a bootstrap sample did not include the
# longer survival times
}
\keyword{survival}
\keyword{nonparametric}
\concept{bootstrap}