Lung cancer maintenance therapy is ongoing therapy that is administered after the acute phase of treatment has been completed.
The goal is to improve quality of life while offering a chance for longer survival.
Maintenance therapy is used for disease management, not to cure disease.
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A combination of drugs can often stopmetastatic lung cancerfrom spreading.
Once a course of chemotherapy is completed, cancer could begin growing again.
To limit cancer growth after the standard course of chemotherapy, your healthcare provider may recommend maintenance therapy.
Maintenance therapy is focused on maintaining a state in which cancer is under control.
What is health maintenance for lung cancer?
Health maintenance is a different concept than maintenance therapy.
When maintenance therapy includes a drug that was part of the initial treatment, it may be calledcontinuation maintenance.
When a different drug is introduced, it may be calledswitch maintenance.
This drug can improve survival when used after chemotherapy.
Targeted therapy drugs that have been approved for maintenance therapy include Avastin(bevacizumab).
As a man-made therapy that stops the growth of blood vessels, Avastin is an example of continuation maintenance.
Who Benefits Most From Maintenance Therapy?
Studies of Alimta have shown that it seems to be more effective for people withlung adenocarcinoma.
Side Effects
Maintenance chemotherapy can have side effects and complications that can range from mild to severe.
There are still some drawbacks to these drugs, though.
The most common is skin rash.
This can affect the pulmonary, intestinal, and renal systems, among others.
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