Fig. 2.

Estimates for 5-year relative survival for female patients with colon cancer diagnosed at 55, 65, 75 and 85 years. The dots represent the point estimates and the lines either side the 95% confidence intervals. The vertical line, in each plot, represent the estimate obtained by the reference model. Solid, dash and dot- ted horizontal lines represent 3, 4 and 5 degrees of freedom, respectively, for the main effect of age. (BL: degrees of freedom for the baseline excess hazard, TVC: degrees of freedom for the time-dependent effect of age, A: model chosen by AIC, B: model chosen by BIC).