In patients with advanced myeloma the severity of thrombocytopenia was related to pre-treatment platelet count: for baseline platelet counts < 75,000/μ l, 90% of 21 patients had a count ≤ 25,000/ μ l during the study, including 14 %< 10,000/μl; in contrast, with a baseline platelet count > 75,000/μl, only 14% of 309 patients had a count ≤25×109/l during the study.