{"entity":{"id":"maintenance-therapy","kind":"term","name":"Maintenance therapy","aka":["maintenance","maintenance treatment","maintenance setting","continuation therapy","consolidation","consolidation therapy","switch maintenance","continuation maintenance","PARP maintenance","lenalidomide maintenance","until progression","treat to progression","indefinite therapy","maintenance-therapy-term"],"tldr":"Ongoing, gentler treatment given after the main course has shrunk the cancer, to hold it in check for as long as possible rather than to shrink it further.","summary":"Maintenance is standard in several settings: PARP inhibitors after platinum chemotherapy in ovarian cancer, pemetrexed or immunotherapy after induction chemotherapy in lung cancer, lenalidomide after transplant in myeloma, and rituximab in follicular lymphoma. The rationale is that the disease remaining after induction is small and slow-growing, so a tolerable long-term drug can delay progression by months or years, while the cost is cumulative side effects and expense during a period when the patient feels well. Trials of maintenance measure progression-free survival above all, and whether they extend overall survival is often debated.","asOf":"2026-09-09","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_therapy","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_therapy"}],"tags":[],"related":["first-line","pfs","remission","progression","neoadjuvant-adjuvant","fixed-duration","consolidation-therapy","umrd"],"cancers":["ovarian","nsclc","multiple-myeloma","urothelial"],"sections":["chemotherapy","targeted-therapy"],"technologies":["parp-inhibitor"],"targets":[],"drugs":["olaparib","niraparib","lenalidomide"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Clinic basics"},"route":"/terms/maintenance-therapy/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"consolidation-therapy","kind":"term","name":"Consolidation therapy","route":"/terms/consolidation-therapy/"},{"id":"dose-dense-chemotherapy","kind":"term","name":"Dose-dense and metronomic chemotherapy","route":"/terms/dose-dense-chemotherapy/"},{"id":"fixed-duration","kind":"term","name":"Fixed-duration vs continuous therapy","route":"/terms/fixed-duration/"},{"id":"hormone-therapy","kind":"term","name":"Hormone therapy","route":"/terms/hormone-therapy/"},{"id":"induction-therapy","kind":"term","name":"Induction therapy","route":"/terms/induction-therapy/"},{"id":"first-line","kind":"term","name":"Lines of therapy","route":"/terms/first-line/"},{"id":"lymphoma-tx-maintenance","kind":"term","name":"Maintenance and consolidation in lymphoma: where it works and where it does not","route":"/terms/lymphoma-tx-maintenance/"},{"id":"neoadjuvant-adjuvant","kind":"term","name":"Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative","route":"/terms/neoadjuvant-adjuvant/"},{"id":"progression","kind":"term","name":"Progression","route":"/terms/progression/"},{"id":"pfs","kind":"term","name":"Progression-free survival (PFS)","route":"/terms/pfs/"},{"id":"remission","kind":"term","name":"Remission","route":"/terms/remission/"},{"id":"umrd","kind":"term","name":"Undetectable MRD (uMRD / MRD-negative)","route":"/terms/umrd/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"urothelial","kind":"cancer","name":"Bladder & urothelial cancer","route":"/cancers/urothelial/"},{"id":"extensive-stage-sclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/extensive-stage-sclc/"},{"id":"lung-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Lung cancer (all types)","route":"/cancers/lung-cancer/"},{"id":"multiple-myeloma","kind":"cancer","name":"Multiple myeloma","route":"/cancers/multiple-myeloma/"},{"id":"myeloma-transplant-eligible","kind":"cancer","name":"Newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, transplant-eligible","route":"/cancers/myeloma-transplant-eligible/"},{"id":"myeloma-transplant-ineligible","kind":"cancer","name":"Newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, transplant-ineligible","route":"/cancers/myeloma-transplant-ineligible/"},{"id":"non-hodgkin-lymphoma","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types)","route":"/cancers/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/"},{"id":"nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"Non-small-cell lung cancer","route":"/cancers/nsclc/"},{"id":"ovarian","kind":"cancer","name":"Ovarian cancer","route":"/cancers/ovarian/"},{"id":"pdl1-high-nsclc","kind":"cancer","name":"PD-L1-high non-small-cell lung cancer without a driver mutation","route":"/cancers/pdl1-high-nsclc/"},{"id":"plasma-cell-leukaemia","kind":"cancer","name":"Plasma cell leukaemia","route":"/cancers/plasma-cell-leukaemia/"}],"section":[{"id":"chemotherapy","kind":"section","name":"Chemotherapy","route":"/fronts/chemotherapy/"},{"id":"targeted-therapy","kind":"section","name":"Targeted Therapy","route":"/fronts/targeted-therapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"parp-inhibitor","kind":"technology","name":"PARP inhibitors","route":"/technologies/parp-inhibitor/"}],"drug":[{"id":"lenalidomide","kind":"drug","name":"Lenalidomide","route":"/drugs/lenalidomide/"},{"id":"niraparib","kind":"drug","name":"Niraparib","route":"/drugs/niraparib/"},{"id":"olaparib","kind":"drug","name":"Olaparib","route":"/drugs/olaparib/"}],"trial":[{"id":"enrich","kind":"trial","name":"ENRICH","route":"/trials/enrich/"},{"id":"lyma","kind":"trial","name":"LyMa","route":"/trials/lyma/"},{"id":"panoptimox-prodige-35","kind":"trial","name":"PANOPTIMOX-PRODIGE 35","route":"/trials/panoptimox-prodige-35/"},{"id":"prima-follicular","kind":"trial","name":"PRIMA","route":"/trials/prima-follicular/"},{"id":"remarc","kind":"trial","name":"REMARC","route":"/trials/remarc/"},{"id":"shine","kind":"trial","name":"SHINE","route":"/trials/shine/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-enrich-ibrutinib-rituximab-mantle-cell-lancet-2025","kind":"paper","name":"Ibrutinib and rituximab versus immunochemotherapy in patients with previously untreated mantle cell lymphoma (ENRICH): a randomised, open-label, phase 2/3 superiority trial","route":"/key-papers/paper-enrich-ibrutinib-rituximab-mantle-cell-lancet-2025/"},{"id":"paper-shine-ibrutinib-bendamustine-rituximab-mantle-cell-nejm-2022","kind":"paper","name":"Ibrutinib plus bendamustine and rituximab in untreated mantle-cell lymphoma","route":"/key-papers/paper-shine-ibrutinib-bendamustine-rituximab-mantle-cell-nejm-2022/"},{"id":"paper-remarc-lenalidomide-maintenance-dlbcl-jco-2017","kind":"paper","name":"Lenalidomide maintenance compared with placebo in responding elderly patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma treated with first-line R-CHOP","route":"/key-papers/paper-remarc-lenalidomide-maintenance-dlbcl-jco-2017/"},{"id":"paper-lyma-rituximab-maintenance-after-transplant-mantle-cell-nejm-2017","kind":"paper","name":"Rituximab after autologous stem-cell transplantation in mantle-cell lymphoma","route":"/key-papers/paper-lyma-rituximab-maintenance-after-transplant-mantle-cell-nejm-2017/"},{"id":"paper-prima-rituximab-maintenance-follicular-lancet-2011","kind":"paper","name":"Rituximab maintenance for 2 years in patients with high tumour burden follicular lymphoma responding to rituximab plus chemotherapy (PRIMA): a phase 3, randomised controlled trial","route":"/key-papers/paper-prima-rituximab-maintenance-follicular-lancet-2011/"},{"id":"paper-prima-final-rituximab-maintenance-follicular-jco-2019","kind":"paper","name":"Sustained progression-free survival benefit of rituximab maintenance in patients with follicular lymphoma: long-term results of the PRIMA study","route":"/key-papers/paper-prima-final-rituximab-maintenance-follicular-jco-2019/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"lymphoma-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Lymphoma roadmap: from a jaw tumour in Uganda and the first human cancer virus to gene-expression subtypes, PET-adapted chemotherapy, CAR-T cells, bispecific antibodies and the genetics-directed trials now recruiting","route":"/roadmaps/lymphoma-roadmap/"}]}}