Salvage therapy

Salvage therapy is a form of treatment given after an ailment does not respond to standard treatment. The most common diseases that require salvage therapy are HIV and various tumors. The word is not clearly defined; it is used both to mean a second attempt and a final attempt.

HIV
Antiretroviral drugs (AVRs) are given to slow down the HIV reproduction, which in turn increases quality of life and survival. If the patient's viral load starts to increase instead of staying very low, it almost always means the virus has developed a resistance to the ARVs. As more and more mutations develop, it becomes harder to select an ARV that will contain it. Salvage therapy is the attempt to contain it, even though there are no common options.