What Does Remission Mean?

In medicine, remission refers to the process involved in partially or completely eliminating a disease and its symptoms. This is a common term used in cancer treatment. There are three main reasons why remission is done for cancer patients.

Remission is done in an attempt to cure the disease. Usually, the patient remains free of cancerous cells for long after this treatment. It is also done in order slow down the spread of cancerous cells when remission cannot fully treat the disease. Lastly, remission is used to do away with symptoms associated with cancer. This treatment tries to eliminate pain and other symptoms a cancer patient could be experiencing.

There are two major types of treatment: Complete and partial remission. Like the name suggests, complete remission treats the cancer and its symptoms. Successful complete remissions ensure that the cancer does not reoccur even after a long time. Partial remissions on the other hand only deal with the short term. The cancer remains but cancer patients are able to live a little bit more comfortably with the disease.

The type of remission is usually different for different cancer patients. The type of remission is determined by lab tests that are done to establish how a cancer responded to treatment and therapy.  These lab tests are determined by the stage of the cancer in a patient. The types of tests include blood tests, x-rays and CT scans.

Remissions can be grouped by the method used in testing cancer patients. Clinical remission is done based on the results of an examination of the cancer patient for instance blood test. Radiological remission is based on CT Scans of the patients.

Pathological remission is another category of remission which is based on the results of bone marrow biopsy study. The last category of remission is referred to as cytogenetic remission. Cytogenetic remissions are done by oncologists based on the study of chromosomal and genetic elements of the bone marrow.

Different categories of remissions are used for different cancer patients depending on the stage of the cancer and the type of cancer. Chemotherapy is a type of remission that is used to treat cancer patients.

In remission means that the results have come back from a biopsy, that has been taken on a cancer patient. It means that virtually all the leukaemia or cancer in the active blood has gone. Unfortunately, the biopsy doesn't show the results of the inactive blood, such as blood that is already in the muscles, or blood in the process of being made. In these cases, there may still be Leukaemia or cancer cells, that for now just aren't active, but would be in the future. This is why treatment is still given to patients in remission, to try and make sure that all the Leukaemia or cancer goes. During this time of treatment, the patient has no immune system in their body, thus can not fight against normal things like the common cold, and could make the patient seriously ill.

In the field of medicine, in remission refers to the lessening or abatement in the intensity or scope of something. It basically refers to the subsiding of the symptoms of a disease. The time during which this abatement occurs is also called as remission.

Remission is that point of time when the disease starts subsiding in terms of symptoms and intensity.

This term is usually made use of when talking about patients of leukaemia or other types of cancerous diseases in which the symptoms become lesser or vanish. In such an occurrence, the diseases is referred to be 'in remission'. The period of remission may go on only for a short period or it may prolong for many months or even years.

Simply put, it is that condition of the absence of activity of disease in sufferers with known chronic diseases. It is mainly used to refer to cancer that has become inactive.

When a person goes into 'remission' it usually means that they are not ill anymore. There are various stages of remission and it is a term which refers to the shrinkage of the cancer. If you are said to be in complete remission, that usually means that the cancer is no longer found in any test results including x-rays and scans etc. Partial remission is where the cancer has shrunk, but it is still there.

Unfortunately complete remission doesn't always mean that the cancer has gone away for good. In some cases it does come back and there is no way of telling when it could. It sometimes takes years after a person has gone into remission, before the cancer comes back, or it could simply be a few months. However, it may not come back at all, so there is still cause to celebrate if you do go into remission!