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.