The Goals of AML Maintenance Therapy

Opinion
Video

Catherine E. Lai, MD, MPH, discusses the goals of maintenance therapy, how to manage treatment-related adverse events, and the impact of treatment on patient’s quality of life.

Transcript:

For patients who aren’t able to go to transplant, the goal of therapy is to continue maintenance if that is an option for them to prevent leukemia relapse. We try to keep patients on therapy for as long as they can tolerate it with regard to adverse effects, particularly in terms of quality of life and cytopenias. That is the main concern for patients. There are some GI adverse effects as well. These are all typically manageable and can be alleviated by either dose interruptions or dose holds or decreasing the duration. But it’s important to try to continue the maintenance and just modify your maintenance treatment accordingly so that patients can continue on therapy.

Transcript edited for clarity.

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