Survival of IPSS-R–classified patient subgroups using smoothed hazard plots and corresponding Kaplan-Meier curves (representative example). (A) Smoothed hazard plots more clearly demonstrate changes in risk at different time intervals than do (B) Kaplan-Meier plots. The smoothed hazard for very high risk indicates 10% monthly mortality risk in the beginning (A, top arrow) in agreement with the Kaplan-Meier curve. After approximately 30 months (A, middle arrow), 5% monthly mortality for the very-high-risk group is shown, which is not clearly visible in the Kaplan-Meier curve. The mortality risks of the remaining patients for all risk groups are similar after approximately 60 months. Note that the time scale in (B) is expanded to improve visibility of the decline in the first year. The bold black dotted line represents all patients. int, intermediate; pts, patients; vhr, very high-risk.