Remission

cabbott said:

I have been told that stage 4 cancer can't be cured, but that doesn't mean it can't be treated or that you can't go into remission. Remission means that the beast seems to be gone. It means the tumors have disappeared and aren't bothering you anymore. I have seen the term "NED" which means "No Evidence of Disease" used more often around here. The reason they don't say "cured" is because cancer is a genetic disease characterized by the ability to invade nearby tissues, grow without control, and break off and set up camp elsewhere in the body. Once the cancer cells have progressed to the point where they can set up elsewhere (make mets), they may do it again. Chemo can still be effective in putting you back in "NED". I have met survivors that have gone through chemo as many as 5 times over more than 20 years. Each time they were put into remission by the chemo. Each time they got to "NED". Making the tumor(s) dormant, that is, no sign of growth, making them shrink (partial remission), or making them go away altogether (complete remission) are all good outcomes of chemo. If the doctor says that you are in remission, that's good news. If you are lucky, cancer becomes something like a chronic disease that you have controlled so that life is still pretty normal and the disease is not the center of your life.

cabbott said:

I hope it will be something like a controllable though chronic disease. None of us get a choice on what kind of cancer we get. It's a lottery ticket nobody asks for. We don't get a choice about getting cancer or about what kind of cancer we get. Not to be depressing, but some of us do everything right-go to the best doctors out there, take the best recommended treatment available, and do everything by the book--yet still find out that our cancer doesn't respond. Others do the same thing and their cancer goes into remission. It reminds me of backgammon. Part of the game is skill and part of it is luck. The skill part still counts though, so never give up hope that your sister will win. As part of a clinical tril she will either get the standard treatment that is the best proven kind for her cancer or she will be in the arm getting a treatment that might prove even better. If her cancer does not respond, they will probably switch to something else. Clinical trials not only help the participant, they also provide valuable data to doctors and researchers that will save lives in the future. Please thank your sister for participating. I'm blackballed from trials because I have two kinds of cancer, but I wish I could. Trials give both participants and survivors in the future more of a chance.