What is wrong with my custom colour palette in this plot? - r

Question

Using ggsurvplot to draw some Kaplan-Meier curves.
5 curves should be plotted and I want control over their colours.
Here is the output of the survfit being plotted:
> elective_30Decadesurv
Call: survfit(formula = elective30Surv ~ electives$Decade)
n events median 0.95LCL 0.95UCL
electives$Decade=50 14 0 NA NA NA
electives$Decade=60 173 2 NA NA NA
electives$Decade=70 442 5 NA NA NA
electives$Decade=80 168 4 NA NA NA
electives$Decade=90 2 0 NA NA NA
Here is a working plot using the default colour palette, "hue":
> ggsurvplot(elective_30Decadesurv,
data = electives,
palette = "hue",
title = "30 day survival after elective EVAR",
legend = "none",
legend.title = "Decade",
legend.labs = c("5th",
"6th",
"7th",
"8th",
"9th"
),
censor.shape = 124,
ggtheme = survPlotTheme,
risk.table = "nrisk_cumevents",
risk.table.y.text.col = TRUE,
risk.table.fontsize = 3,
risk.table.height = 0.3,
break.time.by = 5,
ylim = c(0.95,
1
),
pval = TRUE,
pval.size = 3,
pval.coord = c(1,
0.96
)
)
See plot in section 3.1.4 of this webpage for the output of the above
The Decade group has 5 entries, so I'm trying to provide five colours to palette.
However, both:
> ggsurvplot(elective_30Decadesurv,
data = electives,
palette = c("#440154",
"#3B528B",
"#21908C",
"#5DC863",
"#5DC863"
),
title = "30 day survival after elective EVAR",
legend = "none",
legend.title = "Decade",
legend.labs = c("5th",
"6th",
"7th",
"8th",
"9th"
),
censor.shape = 124,
ggtheme = survPlotTheme,
risk.table = "nrisk_cumevents",
risk.table.y.text.col = TRUE,
risk.table.fontsize = 3,
risk.table.height = 0.3,
break.time.by = 5,
ylim = c(0.95,
1
),
pval = TRUE,
pval.size = 3,
pval.coord = c(1,
0.96
)
)
And:
> fiveColours <- c("#440154",
"#3B528B",
"#21908C",
"#5DC863",
"#5DC863"
)
> ggsurvplot(elective_30Decadesurv,
data = electives,
palette = fiveColours,
title = "30 day survival after elective EVAR",
legend = "none",
legend.title = "Decade",
legend.labs = c("5th",
"6th",
"7th",
"8th",
"9th"
),
censor.shape = 124,
ggtheme = survPlotTheme,
risk.table = "nrisk_cumevents",
risk.table.y.text.col = TRUE,
risk.table.fontsize = 3,
risk.table.height = 0.3,
break.time.by = 5,
ylim = c(0.95,
1
),
pval = TRUE,
pval.size = 3,
pval.coord = c(1,
0.96
)
)
Give the same error:
Error in names(.cols) <- grp.levels :
'names' attribute [5] must be the same length as the vector [4]
What vector is length [4]?
Is 'names' attribute my colour vector?
If I take one of the colours out of the custom palette, eg fiveColours <- c("#440154","#3B528B","#21908C","#5DC863") I get this error:
Error: Insufficient values in manual scale. 5 needed but only 4 provided.
Which implies the number of colours provided is correct but something else is causing the issue.
I've troubleshot to the limits of my own ability. Help please!
FYI:
> electives %>% select(Decade) %>% group_by(Decade) %>% summarise(n())
# A tibble: 5 x 2
Decade `n()`
<fct> <int>
1 50 14
2 60 173
3 70 442
4 80 168
5 90 2
Should prove the length of the Decade variable and here is how the survival object and survfit were generated:
> elective5Surv <- Surv(electives$surv5Y, electives$dead5Y)
> elective_5Decadesurv <- survfit(elective5Surv ~ electives$Decade)

Answer 1

Ok, I have sorted my own mistake by proof-reading!
Of the five hex colours I’d provided, two were identical (not on purpose.)
I changed the fifth colour to a different hex value (what it was meant to be in the first place) and it works now.
Thanks, Rui, for your response earlier, it helped me down the path!