Maintenance therapy in malignant oncohematology, recent advances, evolving concepts

Maintenance therapy has been the strong and standard element of many acute lymphoblastic leukaemia protocols, used much less frequently and systematically in adult oncohematological disorders. The first adult maintenance efforts appeared in follicular and mantle cell lymphoma (mostly monoclonal antibody based), along with an early maintenance effort to prolong the plateau phase of myeloma. For the time being, after a long debate, the prognosis-dependent type of consolidation and maintenance became - sometimes until relapse - the standard approach in myeloma patients. The so-called small molecules, which turned out to be effective as induction and relapse agents, are continuously moving toward maintenance settings. Moreover, maintenance efforts seem to be more and more considered and used in transplanted or some non-transplanted acute myeloid leukaemia patients as well. Nevertheless, maintenance should be patient-friendly, easy to use (e.g., tablets) by enabling short outpatient office time, done not very frequently, and as much quality-of-life-based as possible. Orv Hetil. 2020; 161(38): 1623-1628.