Fig 3.

Display of hazard ratio (HR) values of baseline prognostic variables on overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) as a function of years since enrollment. The HRs and 95% CIs are based on a multivariate Cox regression. An X indicates that the variable was not found significant in the multivariate analysis. The first row of the x-axis indicates the number of years since first enrollment. When examined among all patients (A, upper panel), regardless of vailability of gene expression profiling (GEP), HR values for albumin and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), but not cytogenetic abnormalities, decreased over time. Thalidomide's favorable impact was detectable for EFS at year 7 but was not detectable for OS until year 10. When GEP data were also onsidered (B, lower panel), high-risk designation dominated both OS and EFS models. Random assignment to thalidomide was a favorable feature for EFS but not OS. B2M, beta-2-microglobulin; Hb, hemoglobin; CA, cytogenetic abnormalities; Creat, creatinine.