Remission
The disappearance of symptoms of a disease or when the symptoms become less severe is known as the "remission" of an illness. This term is most often used with patients who are experiencing and fighting off cancer. After diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of a disease, the illness may take to the different methods for diminishing it and create an absence of the disease for a certain amount of time. It is unknown if when a patient goes into remission with their chronic illness that it will come back again. This cannot be determined by the medical professional team that is helping with the treatment and elimination of the cancer.
Remission is usually used for a term that means "being cured from the disease." However, it is important to remember that this timeframe to which the illness disappears may be short lived. There are two kinds of remission: complete and partial. When a person is said to have complete remission, there are no signs of cancer. On the other hand, partial remission refers to a person still having signs and symptoms of cancer but have a decreased amount of harmful cells in the body. Even with a complete remission there may still be signs of cancer within the body that remain dormant and could potentially come back. If the cancer comes out of its stage of remission, it is most likely that the medical team will perform another diagnosis and more sets of treatment to comfort the patient from pain and begin eliminating dangerous cells. Mesothelioma is a particularly harsh type of cancer and mesothelioma treatment is often used to alleviate pain, and doesn't often result in remission.
Last modified: December 28, 2010.
