Fig. 5

The effect of thalidomide on weight gain during two cycles of treatment

Weight gain was expressed as the percent of body weight gained relative to starting weight for each patient tested. Patients were evaluated during two cycles of treatment with thalidomide followed by a washout period and another cycle of thalidomide (three patients) (top), thalidomide followed by a washout and a placebo cycle (three patients) (middle), and placebo followed by a washout and a thalidomide cycle (two patients) (bottom). The arrows above the graphs denote thalidomide treatment (solid) and placebo treatment (broken). Statistical analyses of the differences in the slopes of each curve showed that weight gain was significantly different on thalidomide versus washout or placebo (p = 0.0043 and 0.031, respectively) and not significantly different between placebo and the washout period (p = 0.36).