8.2 The Question

We will use the classic “Survival from Malignant Melanoma” dataset which is included in the boot package. The data consist of measurements made on patients with malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer. Each patient had their tumour removed by surgery at the Department of Plastic Surgery, University Hospital of Odense, Denmark, between 1962 and 1977.

For the purposes of this discussion, we are interested in the association between tumour ulceration and death from melanoma.