Censoring (clinical trials)

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Mathematically removing a patient from the survival curve at the end of their follow-up time is called censoring the patient. Censoring a patient will reduce the sample size for ananlyzing after the time of the censorship. Reducing the sample size always reduces reliability, so the more patients are censored and the earlier they are censored the more unreliable the results are.
Many clinical trials are designed with a minimum follow-up time. This means that the results aren't reported until that amount of the time after the last patient signed up for the trial. Often reports of the preliminary results don't include any minimum follow-up time and include the patients with very short follow-up time which definitely affects the reliability of the result.

[edit] References

AR Waladkhani. (2008). Conducting clinical trials. A theoretical and practical guide. ISBN 9783940934000