Customizing the Kaplan-Meier Survival Plot

Changing How the Censored Points Are Displayed

By default, PROC LIFETEST displays a plus sign to indicate censoring. This example illustrates how to change the plus sign to a small filled circle in both the step plots and the inset box. The following steps change the template and create Figure 23.25:

/*-- Original Macro Variable Definitions ----------------------------------
%let Censored   = markerattrs=(symbol=plus);
%let CensorStr  = "+ Censored";
-------------------------------------------------------------------------*/

%ProvideSurvivalMacros

%let censored  = markerattrs=(symbol=circlefilled size=3px);
%let censorstr = "(*ESC*){Unicode '25cf'x} Censored"
                 / textattrs=GraphValueText(family=GraphUnicodeText:FontFamily);

%CompileSurvivalTemplates

proc lifetest data=sashelp.BMT plots=survival(cb=hw atrisk(outside maxlen=13));
   time T * Status(0);
   strata Group;
run;

Figure 23.25: Survival Plot with a Modified Display of Censoring

The Unicode Consortium (http://unicode.org/) provides a list of character codes. Also see Output 22.2.7 in Chapter 22: ODS Graphics Template Modification, for information about the Unicode specification for other markers. Although some Unicode characters are supported in some fonts, you should always specify a Unicode font when using special characters.