A Bayesian Semiparametric Accelerated Failure Time Model

Summary. A Bayesian semiparametric approach is described for an accelerated failure time model. The error distribution is assigned a Polya tree prior and the regression parameters a noninformative hierarchical prior. Two cases are considered: the first assumes error terms are exchangeable; the second assumes that error terms are partially exchangeable. A Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm is described to obtain a predictive distribution for a future observation given both uncensored and censored data.