Fig. 2.

Outcome after allogeneic stem cell transplantation stratified according to pre-transplant free IL-18 quartiles. (A) In the training cohort, higher pre-transplant serum levels of free IL-18 were associated with lower probability of overall survival (OS). (B) Higher pre-transplant free IL-18 correlated with an increased cumulative incidence of non-relapse mortality (NRM) in the training cohort. (C) In contrast, relapse incidences were similar between the quartiles of patients stratified on the basis of pre-transplant free IL-18 in the training set. (D, E, F) In the validation cohort, a similar association of pre-transplant free IL-18 with OS, due to a higher incidence of NRM rather than relapse, was observed.

Note: Quartiles were chosen for reasons of visualization of the associations of outcome measures with continuous pre-transplant free IL-18 (assessed for every twofold change in uni- and multivariable analyses [cf. Table 2 and 3]).

Abbreviations: IL-18, interleukin-18; Q1-4, quartiles of the pre-transplant free IL-18 distribution.