Maintenance therapy

Health topics by Health Jade Team on August 5, 2020 927 views

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Maintenance therapy benefits and drawbacks

Maintenance therapy

Maintenance therapy is the treatment of cancer with drugs, vaccines, or antibodies that kill cancer cells, to help keep cancer from coming back after it has disappeared following the initial round of treatment. Maintenance treatment may include chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or targeted therapy and it may be given for a long time.

Maintenance therapy is more common now for many types of cancer because:

The number of effective drugs for most types of cancer has increased. Some of these drugs are not used for initial treatment, but they are effective as a part of maintenance therapy.
New cancer drugs often have fewer side effects than older ones. This means that people may be able to take them longer.
Maintenance therapy can help lengthen the lives of people with certain types of cancer. But some studies have shown that maintenance therapy does not work for all types of cancer. Some drugs are also more effective than others.

Maintenance therapy often uses traditional chemotherapy drugs. However, it typically involves a single drug rather than a combination, so there are usually fewer side effects. But doctors give lower doses than when you first have treatment. You might also get targeted therapy, hormonal therapy, or other drugs. For example, doctors give hormones as maintenance therapy for some types of breast cancer. Maintenance therapy may include a drug from the first treatment plan. Or it may include another drug or drug combination.

Maintenance therapy is used for the following reasons:

To prevent or delay the cancer’s return if the cancer is in complete remission after the initial treatment. “Complete remission” means that the doctors cannot find cancer and you have no symptoms.
To slow the growth of advanced cancer after the initial treatment. This can help shrink the cancer, which is called a partial remission. In this situation, maintenance therapy is not used to cure the cancer, but it can lengthen a person’s life.

You can have maintenance therapy for a long time in either of these situations.

Maintenance therapy may be used to lower the chance of the cancer coming back. For example, it may be considered after treatment for some types of leukemia and lymphoma. Talk with your doctor about if or how maintenance therapy is used for the type of cancer you have.

Maintenance therapy may help control advanced cancer that has improved but is not gone after initial treatments. In these situations, it can help people live longer. Maintenance therapy is now commonly used after initial treatment for several cancers, such as advanced lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and some types of lymphoma.