Figure 1

Flow cytometric analysis (FCM) of the representative t(14;16)-positive MM cells and overall survival (OS) of patients according to the presence or absence of t(14;16). (a) CD38⁺ plasma cells in bone marrow specimens obtained from patients with t(14;16) always showed negativity for CD56 expression (expressed lower than 20%) by FCM, as shown in Pt #1 and Pt #2. Moreover, CD20 is expressed more frequently in MM cells with t(14;16) than in those without t(14;16), as shown in Pt #1 (refer to Table 1). (b) OS curves for all MM patients according to the status of t(14;16) are plotted using the Kaplan–Meier’s method. Censored cases are depicted by the dots. (c) OS curves of the patients who received one or more lines of novel drugs are plotted. (d) Statistically significant prognostic factors for the OS among t(14;16)-positive MM patients are shown with the corresponding survival curves based on performance status (PS), platelet count (PLT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) values. They were also analyzed for patients without t(14;16) as shown below. The prognostification was determined by indexes of 0–1 or 2–4 for PS, higher (⩾100 × 10³/μl) or lower PLT (<100 × 10³/μl) and higher (>1.0 N) or normal serum LDH (⩽1.0 N).