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At each distinct event time $t_j$, let $d_j$ events occur among $r_j$ people in the risk set. The Kaplan–Meier estimator iscensorings remove people from later risk sets but create no factor.

Left truncation, or delayed entry, means that an individual is observed only after surviving to an entry time. A registry assembled from patients alive when a clinic opens is a practical example. Adapt Kaplan–Meier by admitting each person to the risk set only at their entry time.

Period survival analysis is useful when recent prognosis is desired but complete long-term follow-up of a recent diagnosis cohort is unavailable. For a chosen calendar year, intersect every patient's observed follow-up with that year. Express the surviving pieces on the time-since-diagnosis scale, treat the beginning of the calendar window as delayed entry and its end as right censoring, and apply Kaplan–Meier with those entry and exit times.

A period survival analysis estimates survival under the recent mortality conditions operating during a fixed calendar period. For calendar year 2022, each cancer patient's contribution begins at the later of diagnosis and 1 January 2022, which treats earlier diagnoses as left-truncated at the start of the year. Follow-up ends at death, loss to follow-up, or 31 December 2022, so surviving records are right-censored. Combining these risk-set contributions, commonly through a Kaplan–Meier estimator, constructs the 2022 period survivor function; records from several diagnosis cohorts may contribute different segments of follow-up.