The chance of survival >= 10 years was about 5%.
Unfavorable prognostic factors for long term survival (>= 10 years):
(1) older age at the time of diagnosis
(2) congestive heart failure
(3) serum creatinine >= 2.0 mg/dL
(4) plasma cells representing >= 20% of bone marrow cellularity
(5) platelet count <= 500,000 per µL
(6) peripheral neuropathy
Age is a difficult risk factor to handle. Based on Figure 2, page 1064, most patients die within 0 - 5 years, with an age range of 30 to 90 and a mean age of 63 years. For patients alive >= 10 years the age range is 35 - 68 years with a mean of 54 years. However, most patients < 63 years die within 5 years. Defining long term survival as >= 10 years may favor a younger population; perhaps survival should be age adjusted for that of the general population.
