Table 1. Patient characteristics.

IFN status	Dg	Gender	Ageat dg.	Duration of CML (months)	Reason for STOP/no STOP	Course of IFN-α therapy	Response
IFN-ON 1	CP	m	62	144	No severe side-effects,PCR positive	auto-PBSCT, 1.5 MU/2x weekly – cont.For 12 years	MR4.0
IFN-ON 2	CP	f	35	240	No severe side effects,	2 MU/3x weekly – cont. for 20 years.	CMR
					doctor hesitates to stop,
					sometimes PCR positive
IFN-ON 3	CP	m	29	163	Patient does not want to stop	5.5 MU/6x weekly – cont. for 14 years.	MR4.0
IFN-ON 4	CP	f*	20	168	no severe side-effects	busulfanc, 1.5 MU/2x weekly	MMR
					PCR positive	– cont. for 12 years.
IFN-ON 5	CP	f*	40	8	Diagnosed during pregnancy	For 8 months	CMR
IFN-OFF 1	CP	m	44	204	Nephrosis,	IFN-α (10 years and stopped),	CMR
					low hemoglobin (80)	7 years no therapy
IFN-OFF 2	CP	m	53	170	Side-effects(nausea, muscle pain),	IFN-α (11 years and stopped),	CMR
					good response,patient requested	3 years no therapy
IFN-OFF 3	CP	f	53	134	Good response	auto-PBSCT, IFN-α (8 years and stopped),	CMR
						3 years no therapy
IFN-OFF 4	CP	m	59	86	Good response	IFN-α (5 years and stopped),	CMR
						2 years no therapy
IFN-OFF 5	CP	m	42	84	Good response	IFN-α (5 years and stopped),	CMR
						3 years no therapy
IFN-OFF 6	CP	m	36	112	Good response	auto-PBSCT, IFN-α (5 years and stopped),	CMR
						4 years no therapy
IFN-OFF 7	CP	f	41	172	Good response	auto-PBSCT, IFN-α (7 years and stopped),	CMR
						7 years no therapy
IFN-OFF 8	CP	f	54	168	Good response	IFN-α (10 years and stopped), 4 years no therapy	CMR

^* = Pregnant. Abbreviations: CP, chronic phase; m, male; f, female; dg, diagnosis; cont, continued; MU, million unit; MR4.0, molecular response 4.0, CMR, Complete Molecular Response; MMR, Major Molecular Response; Auto-PBSCT, autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation.