3 ms·

Can someone explain "remission" to me? Perhaps I am missing something because to me, going 18 years without cancer after having cancer and going through treatm

Can someone explain "remission" to me? Perhaps I am missing something because to me, going 18 years without cancer after having cancer and going through treatment is...expected? Does canceer treatment not actually get rid of the cancer or something like that?

teddyh 2y ago
Relevant xkcd: <https://xkcd.com/931/ https://xkcd.com/931/>
- DennisP 2y ago
  I know that's generally true, but apparently sometimes the odds of recurrence are so low they stop worrying about it. I have a relative who was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma a decade ago. She got three doses of immunotherapy and her tumors immediately shrank by 2/3, and eventually disappeared entirely. For a while they kept scanning her twice a year, but several years ago they told her it was gone and stopped the scans.
  - Out_of_Characte 2y ago
    That's great to hear but, your risk of cancer before diagnosis and after you're cured is, at best, the same.
    - DennisP 2y ago
      Yes of course, even if all her cancer cells have been destroyed, she could still get an entirely new cancer, just like anyone else. She hasn't attained some kind of immunity.
apwell23 2y ago
you really have no way to know if cancer has been "gotten rid of". Presumably thing that went wrong in your body and gave you cancer is still wrong. remission = we can't see anything in this scan. you cannot assume scan can 'see' all cancer, there is no such scan. Its no different than taking a pill for high cholesterol you are not cured of the disease .
- spondylosaurus 2y ago
  Yeah, "remission" comes from the Latin "remit," which liter means "to return or restore." When illness originates outside the body, it's usually possible to completely kill/eradicate it, at which point you're "cured." But some things either linger forever (certain viruses, like how chicken pox can come back as shingles) or originate inside your own body (cancer, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis). In the latter case, treatment makes it possible to return to a baseline normal, but there's no guarantee it's all the way gone or won't ever return, so we say it's in remission rather than cured. Cancer lurks; autoimmune diseases go dormant but don't die. (One autoimmune exception: if you have ulcerative colitis, completely removing your colon cures most people, since the problem lies in that specific organ. But that goes to show how drastic a true cure is!) There are also some conditions, notably MS, that are described as "relapsing/remitting" because they alternate between periods of relapse and remission. So you'll feel fine for a while, then the symptoms come back, then they go away again, etc.

teddyh 2y ago

Relevant xkcd: <https://xkcd.com/931/ https://xkcd.com/931/>

DennisP 2y ago
I know that's generally true, but apparently sometimes the odds of recurrence are so low they stop worrying about it. I have a relative who was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma a decade ago. She got three doses of immunotherapy and her tumors immediately shrank by 2/3, and eventually disappeared entirely. For a while they kept scanning her twice a year, but several years ago they told her it was gone and stopped the scans.
- Out_of_Characte 2y ago
  That's great to hear but, your risk of cancer before diagnosis and after you're cured is, at best, the same.
  - DennisP 2y ago
    Yes of course, even if all her cancer cells have been destroyed, she could still get an entirely new cancer, just like anyone else. She hasn't attained some kind of immunity.

apwell23 2y ago

you really have no way to know if cancer has been "gotten rid of". Presumably thing that went wrong in your body and gave you cancer is still wrong. remission = we can't see anything in this scan. you cannot assume scan can 'see' all cancer, there is no such scan. Its no different than taking a pill for high cholesterol you are not cured of the disease .

spondylosaurus 2y ago
Yeah, "remission" comes from the Latin "remit," which liter means "to return or restore." When illness originates outside the body, it's usually possible to completely kill/eradicate it, at which point you're "cured." But some things either linger forever (certain viruses, like how chicken pox can come back as shingles) or originate inside your own body (cancer, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis). In the latter case, treatment makes it possible to return to a baseline normal, but there's no guarantee it's all the way gone or won't ever return, so we say it's in remission rather than cured. Cancer lurks; autoimmune diseases go dormant but don't die. (One autoimmune exception: if you have ulcerative colitis, completely removing your colon cures most people, since the problem lies in that specific organ. But that goes to show how drastic a true cure is!) There are also some conditions, notably MS, that are described as "relapsing/remitting" because they alternate between periods of relapse and remission. So you'll feel fine for a while, then the symptoms come back, then they go away again, etc.