10.3 Death status

status is the patient’s status at the end of the study.

• 1 indicates that they had died from melanoma;
• 2 indicates that they were still alive and;
• 3 indicates that they had died from causes unrelated to their melanoma.

There are three options for coding this.

• Overall survival: considering all-cause mortality, comparing 2 (alive) with 1 (died melanoma)/3 (died other);
• Cause-specific survival: considering disease-specific mortality comparing 2 (alive)/3 (died other) with 1 (died melanoma);
• Competing risks: comparing 2 (alive) with 1 (died melanoma) accounting for 3 (died other); see more below.