Fig. 2

Changes of serum survivin levels during the SWEFOT trial. Serum levels of survivin were measured in 302 patients enrolled in the trial at baseline, where 114 patients were survivin-positive (survivin > 0.45 ng/mL, dashed line), and the remaining 188 patients were survivin-negative. In total, a decrease of survivin levels was observed at 3, 12, and 24 months of antirheumatic treatment. The number of samples available for the analysis is indicated at each time point. Bolded lines indicate median levels of the survivin-positive at baseline group (open circles) and the survivin-negative converting to positive group at any time point over 24 months (filled rhombi). A total of 52 (46 %) of the survivin-positive patients converted to negative over 24 months. Comparison between the time points was done by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, and the P values for the total patient cohort are indicated