We propose a new interference cancellation scheme called the symbol-by-symbol based adaptive interference canceller (SAIC). The SAIC adaptively estimates and removes both multiple access interference (MAI) and intersymbol interference (ISI) at the output of the RAKE receiver. It requires neither respreading nor the evaluation of partial cross-correlation. In addition, its complexity is independent of the number of fingers of the RAKE receiver. Consequently, the SAIC is considerably simpler to implement than existing techniques. Computer simulation results demonstrate that the SAIC can perform much better than a conventional RAKE receiver.