Maintenance therapy in Ph negative adult acute lymphoblasticleukemia

Maintenance therapy means long-term administration of low-dose chemotherapy or other drugs. With the exception of patients with mature B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), long-term maintenance therapy, adapted from its successful use in pediatric ALL, is generally given in adult ALL for one to three years, with a backbone of daily 6-mercaptopurine (MP) and weekly methothrexate (MTX). In the chapter we discuss the role of maintenance in adult ALL, the role of intensification of maintenance, maintenance after autologous stem cell transplantation and the role of minimal residual disease evaluation during maintenance.