If your doctor tells a cancer patient that your cancer is "in remission. "Does this mean you're cured？For cancer patients, the word "cured" can only be used as an afterthought. Often, cancer that has been in remission for many years is considered cured if there is no recurrence. However, if the same conditions are present that caused the first cancer, the cancer will return. It can only be cured if it kills all the cancer cells. But because of technical limitations, it is impossible to detect small Numbers of cancer cells, so it is hard to tell whether cancer will still be detected. A medical CT scan can detect small cancers within a few millimeters, but a cancer of one millimeter, which doesn't show up on the scan, is a cancer tissue that contains about 100,000 cancer cells. So even if the cancer no longer causes symptoms, there may still be cancer cells left. They can continue to divide and eventually relapse again.
In cases where it is not clear whether remission means that cancer is cured, the possibility of cure should be considered in the treatment of cancer. If a cancer is being treated, measures should be taken to minimize residual cancer. For example, in breast cancer, there is no visible disease after surgery, but some cells still exist near the site of surgery, so additional treatment should be given. Radiation therapy is usually given after surgery to remove the tumor. The aim is to kill the remaining cells in the breast.
Five-year survival rates are common when reporting cancer results. Five-year survival is the percentage of patients who survive five years after diagnosis. But with many cancers in remission, surviving five years means they may be cured. But different types of cancer are different. A person diagnosed with an invasive hemangioma is more likely to be cured if the cancer does not return within two years. In breast cancer, the opposite is true. The chance of recurrence after complete remission was the greatest in the first two years and decreased over time, with a recurrence time of 15 years currently recorded.
Cancer survival rates have improved dramatically over time, and continue to do so. So, remission may mean cure, but the condition still presupposes over time.