Remission and Goals of Cancer Therapy

Depending on the type of cancer, and how advanced it is, chemotherapy can be used for different goals:

• Cure the cancer. Cancer is considered cured when the patient
  remains free of any evidence of cancer cells for a long period of time.
  


• Control the cancer. Control is keeping the cancer from spreading;
  slowing the cancer's growth; and killing cancer cells that may
  have spread to other parts of the body from the original tumor.
  


• Relieve symptoms that the cancer may be causing. Relieving
  symptoms such as pain and discomfort can help patients live
  more comfortably. This is sometimes called palliative care.

For certain patients, chemotherapy may be the only treatment used in the effort to cure, control, or relieve the symptoms of their cancer. In other patients, however, chemotherapy may be administered along with other therapies. Chemotherapy can also be used before or after another treatment. When chemotherapy is given before surgery or radiation (neoadjuvant therapy) or after surgery or radiation (adjuvant therapy), it has different reasons than when used alone.

• Neoadjuvant chemotherapy may be used to shrink a large tumor so that it can then be removed by surgery or can be treated more effectively with radiation.
  


• Adjuvant chemotherapy is given to prevent the growth of stray cancer cells remaining in the body after surgery or radiation. In most cases, these cells cannot be seen on routine tests such as CT scans but may be present.

Remission is a term that doctors frequently use with patients and it refers to the response of the cancer to the therapy. A complete remission means that the cancer has completely disappeared with the treatment. Remission does not mean that the patient is cured. A cancer cannot be cured without a remission; however, a remission does not always ensure that the cancer has been totally eliminated. To truly say that a patient is cured of cancer, one has to wait and see if the cancer comes back. The critical difference is time. If a patient remains in remission for a several years, one might say that the cancer is cured. Certain cancers, however, do sometimes reoccur after a long period of remission.

Oncologists use the term partial remission to describe a shrinking in the number of cancer cells, but not their complete disappearance, in response to the cancer therapy. A complete remission is when one can no longer observe the tumor cells by simple examination, chest X ray and/or blood tests.

The type of remission is determined by a set of laboratory tests and examinations that detect whether or not the cancer has responded to therapy. The exact tests performed will depend on the type and extent of the cancer. If a cancer can normally be detected in X-rays, CT scans or other imaging, or blood tests, then the healthcare team will probably repeat these tests looking for changes over time.

It often takes many years to determine whether a new treatment is better than a previous treatment. Chemotherapy side effects can interfere with your cancer therapy. To get the most from your treatment, learn how best to manage chemotherapy side effects.