Fig. 3.

Survival analyses of combined markers Apaf1, Bcl2 and p53. Intrinsic apoptotic pathway markers Apaf1, Bcl2 and p53 were combined based on the number of markers showing high methylation. Only patient with data for all three markers available were included in the survival analyses (n = 78). The resulting combined marker groups were: all low (low methylation in all three markers), 1 high (1 out of 3 markers high methylation), 2 high (2 out of 3 markers high methylation) and all high (high methylation in all three markers). Kaplan–Meier curves were made to visualize differences in patient survival and tumor recurrence between the different methylation groups for OS (a). Survival times were calculated as the time from surgery till an event (death or recurrence, resp.). Cumulative incidence curves were calculated for CSS (b) and DRFS (c)