{"id":20002,"date":"2025-01-14T23:54:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T00:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=20002"},"modified":"2025-01-15T01:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T01:24:09","slug":"kate-middleton-is-in-cancer-remission-it-doesnt-always-mean-the-illness-is-cured","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=20002","title":{"rendered":"Kate Middleton Is in Cancer Remission. It Doesn\u2019t Always Mean the Illness Is Cured."},"content":{"rendered":"
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While the announcement is good news for the Princess of Wales, cancer experts describe the challenges of a life shadowed by an earlier diagnosis.<\/p>\n

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Princess Catherine, wife of Prince William, reported<\/a> on Tuesday that her cancer was in remission. But what does it mean to be in remission from cancer?<\/p>\n

Doctors discovered her cancer<\/a> unexpectedly last March when she had abdominal surgery. She has not revealed the type of cancer she has, nor how advanced it was when it was discovered.<\/p>\n

But she did say she had chemotherapy, which she said had been completed in September. She told<\/a> the British news agency PA Media that she had a port, a small device that is implanted under the skin and attached to a catheter that goes into a large vein. It allows medicines like chemotherapy drugs to be delivered directly to veins in the chest, avoiding needle sticks.<\/p>\n

Catherine told PA Media that chemotherapy was \u201creally tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a relief to now be in remission and I remain focused on recovery,\u201d she wrote on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Her announcement \u201ccertainly is good news and is reassuring,\u201d said Dr. Kimmie Ng, associate chief of the division of gastrointestinal oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.<\/p>\n

But cancer experts like Dr. Ng say that the meaning of remission in a patient can vary.<\/p>\n

In general, when doctors and patients talk about remission, they mean there is no evidence of cancer in blood tests or scans.<\/p>\n

The problem is that a complete remission does not mean the cancer is gone. Even when a cancer is \u201ccured\u201d \u2014 defined as no evidence of cancer for five years \u2014 it may not be vanquished.<\/p>\n

That makes life emotionally difficult for patients, who have to have frequent visits with oncologists for physical exams, blood tests and imaging.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really scary,\u201d Dr. Ng said. \u201cThe amount of uncertainty is very very hard,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

But that ongoing surveillance is necessary, despite the toll it takes on patients.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cDifferent cancers have different propensities of returning or not returning,\u201d said Dr. Elena Ratner, a gynecologic oncologist at the Yale Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

As many as 75 to 80 percent of ovarian cancers, she noted, can come back in an average of 14 to 16 months after a remission, depending on the stage the cancer had reached when it was found and on the cancer\u2019s biology.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the cancer returns, it becomes a chronic disease,\u201d Dr. Ratner said. She tells her patients: \u201cYou will live with this cancer. You will be on and off chemotherapy for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Ratner\u2019s gynecological cancer patients have to come back every three months for CT scans to keep an eye out for evidence that the cancer has returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe women live CT scan to CT scan,\u201d she said. \u201cThey say that for two and a half months, they have a wonderful life, but then, in time for the next CT scan, the fear returns.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt costs them \u2014 it costs them a lot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awful, yet I am amazed every day by their strength,\u201d she said of her patients.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While the announcement is good news for the Princess of Wales, cancer experts describe the challenges of a life shadowed by an earlier diagnosis.Princess Catherine, wife of Prince William, reported on Tuesday that her cancer was in remission. But what does it mean to be in remission from cancer?Doctors discovered her cancer unexpectedly last March when she had abdominal surgery. She has not revealed the type of cancer she has, nor how advanced it was when it was discovered.But she did say she had chemotherapy, which she said had been completed in September. She told the British news agency PA Media that she had a port, a small device that is implanted under the skin and attached to a catheter that goes into a large vein. It allows medicines like chemotherapy drugs to be delivered directly to veins in the chest, avoiding needle sticks.Catherine told PA Media that chemotherapy was \u201creally tough.\u201d\u201cIt is a relief to now be in remission and I remain focused on recovery,\u201d she wrote on Instagram.Her announcement \u201ccertainly is good news and is reassuring,\u201d said Dr. Kimmie Ng, associate chief of the division of gastrointestinal oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.But cancer experts like Dr. Ng say that the meaning of remission in a patient can vary.In general, when doctors and patients talk about remission, they mean there is no evidence of cancer in blood tests or scans.The problem is that a complete remission does not mean the cancer is gone. Even when a cancer is \u201ccured\u201d \u2014 defined as no evidence of cancer for five years \u2014 it may not be vanquished.That makes life emotionally difficult for patients, who have to have frequent visits with oncologists for physical exams, blood tests and imaging.\u201cIt\u2019s really scary,\u201d Dr. Ng said. \u201cThe amount of uncertainty is very very hard,\u201d she added.But that ongoing surveillance is necessary, despite the toll it takes on patients.\u201cDifferent cancers have different propensities of returning or not returning,\u201d said Dr. Elena Ratner, a gynecologic oncologist at the Yale Cancer Center.As many as 75 to 80 percent of ovarian cancers, she noted, can come back in an average of 14 to 16 months after a remission, depending on the stage the cancer had reached when it was found and on the cancer\u2019s biology.\u201cOnce the cancer returns, it becomes a chronic disease,\u201d Dr. Ratner said. She tells her patients: \u201cYou will live with this cancer. You will be on and off chemotherapy for the rest of your life.\u201dDr. Ratner\u2019s gynecological cancer patients have to come back every three months for CT scans to keep an eye out for evidence that the cancer has returned.\u201cThe women live CT scan to CT scan,\u201d she said. \u201cThey say that for two and a half months, they have a wonderful life, but then, in time for the next CT scan, the fear returns.\u201d\u201cIt costs them \u2014 it costs them a lot,\u201d she said.\u201cIt\u2019s awful, yet I am amazed every day by their strength,\u201d she said of her patients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20004,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20005,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20002\/revisions\/20005"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}