EM algorithm for the additive risk mixture cure model with interval-censored data.

Interval-censored failure time data arise in a number of fields and many authors have recently paid more attention to their analysis. However, regression analysis of interval-censored data under the additive risk model can be challenging in maximizing the complex likelihood, especially when there exists a non-ignorable cure fraction in the population. For the problem, we develop a sieve maximum likelihood estimation approach based on Bernstein polynomials. To relieve the computational burden, an expectation-maximization algorithm by exploiting a Poisson data augmentation is proposed. Under some mild conditions, the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator are established. The finite sample performance of the proposed method is evaluated by extensive simulations, and is further illustrated through a real data set from the smoking cessation study.