How is the change in Kaplan Meier survival function is effect if there is no censoring?

Question

Basically what the question above asks. KM survival function considers censored data in its calculations untill it is censored.

But, how will the change in each point of time would be affected if we assume from the start that there is no censoring at all in the data?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

The KM survival function calculates the drop in survival based upon the number of events and the number of patients at risk. When there is censoring, the effect of an event will be bigger, since the number at risk is lower.

The formula used is: survival at time T = S(T-1)*(1- events / number at risk)

For example, we have 10 patients and 3 events, at times 1, 5 and 10. Then the survival will be:

Now, we add two censoring events at times 3 and 5. Then the survival becomes:

As you can see, the events at time 5 and 10 caused a drop of 10% without censoring and of >10% with censoring.

P.s.: This question is better suited for CrossValidated