"Her announcement certainly is good news and is reassuring, 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 cured - defined as no evidence of cancer for five years - 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. It's really scary, Dr. Ng said."
"Different cancers have different propensities of returning or not returning, 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 several years, which underscores the importance of ongoing monitoring even after remission."
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