Maintenance therapy
If your induction therapy for indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) has been successful and you are relatively symptom-free (in remission) maintenance therapy can be an option. The aim of maintenance therapy is to try and prolong your symptom-free period and further delay the progression of your disease. In some cases, it may even be able to help eradicate the disease altogether.
Maintenance therapy is usually given after induction therapy for relapsed disease. But, in some cases, your doctor could decide that maintenance therapy is a good option after your first induction treatment. The benefit of using maintenance therapy after the first induction therapy is currently being investigated in clinical trials. However, maintenance after a first induction is already approved in some countries, for example Canada.
Bear in mind that everyone’s experience of NHL is different and maintenance therapy might not be the best treatment for you. Your doctor or clinical nurse specialist will be able to explain more about your treatment and why it was chosen for you.
Tell me more about maintenance therapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
For maintenance therapy, you continue having doses of immunotherapy, but less often and with no chemotherapy
Maintenance therapy is a continuation of the monoclonal antibody immunotherapy that you received during induction therapy, but you don’t receive any chemotherapy at the same time, and you receive the immunotherapy doses less often.
Your doctor will tell you how often you’ll receive maintenance therapy, but typically you’ll get one dose every 3 months.
It is possible to receive as many as 8 cycles of maintenance therapy, which can take around two years. However, your doctor will decide exactly how much maintenance therapy is right for you.
Maintenance therapy is designed to keep you in remission for as long as possible
Indolent non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is a chronic disease that is unlikely to be completely cured. Usually people with indolent NHL have long periods of remission, when they have no symptoms, followed by times when the symptoms return, known as relapse. So indolent NHL needs to be treated over the long term.
After reducing the lymphoma as much as possible with induction therapy, maintenance therapy is designed to help extend your remission (symptom-free time) for as long as possible. Although, in some cases, maintenance therapy may help eradicate the disease altogether.
Most people who successfully complete induction treatment do eventually have a relapse and need more treatment. The important thing is to make the remission last as long as possible and so increase the time until your next treatment. Research has already shown that maintenance treatment can achieve this in relapsed patients.
Maintenance immunotherapy is currently being studied in clinical trials to investigate whether it offers benefits after the first induction therapy.
Maintenance immunotherapy is only approved for relapsed patients in Europe, although it is approved for both relapsed patients and newly diagnosed patients in countries such as Canada and Switzerland.
Learn more about maintenance therapy for relapsed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Does maintenance therapy have any side effects?
Like any medicine, some monoclonal antibodies can cause side effects, although not everybody gets them.
Most side effects are mild or moderate but some may be serious and require treatment. More rarely, some of these reactions have been fatal. You should discuss the potential side effects with your doctor.
Because you are not receiving chemotherapy during maintenance treatment, you will not have any of the side effects that it causes, such as severe sickness and hair loss.
For more detailed information on side effects of maintenance therapy, please read the patient information leaflet provided with your medication.
Find out more about immunotherapy for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma