April 28, 2024

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How long does it take to cure the cancer without recurrence?

How long does it take to cure the cancer without recurrence?



How long does it take to cure the cancer without recurrence? 4 checks are all normal, congratulations you are not far from being cured. 

In the eyes of many people, there is no cure for cancer. In fact, many cancers can be cured medically.

1. The cure of cancer is called clinical cure

Cure is a medical concept. What we generally call cancer cure refers to clinical cure. From the perspective of cancer, when the patient has undergone treatment, no cancer cells can be detected in the body, or the cancer has not recurred, nor died of this cancer. It can be said that this patient has achieved a clinical cure.

The 5-year survival rate is an important indicator to measure whether the cancer is cured. Why not one or two years, but five years?

In fact, for most cancer patients, 1 to 3 years after the first treatment is a high-risk period for cancer recurrence and metastasis, and about 90% of them occur during this period.

Relatively speaking, the chance of cancer recurring after 5 years is low. Therefore, the “5-year survival rate” is commonly used in clinical practice to measure the probability of curing a certain cancer. This does not mean that cancer patients can only live for 5 years after treatment.

The higher the 5-year survival rate, the greater the probability of curing this cancer. When a cancer patient has been treated for 5 years and the cancer cells have not come back, it can be considered that a clinical cure has been achieved.

How long does it take to cure the cancer without recurrence?

2. All 4 tests are normal. Congratulations, you are not far from being cured

Of course, to verify that cancer cells are not “being blame” also needs to go through layers of inspections. When the patient’s following re-examination items are normal, the goal of cure will be achieved soon.

1) The basic inspection is normal

For cancer patients, doctors usually recommend regular review. There are many items for review. The most frequent ones are the “three routines”: blood routine, urine routine, and stool routine.

Through blood routine indicators, it can reflect the condition of white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets, which helps to observe the changes in the patient’s body after chemotherapy; while the urine routine examination can help to check the condition of the urinary system; stool routine is for patients with gastrointestinal tumors , Is also required. Of course, when using certain anti-angiogenesis and other special drugs, stool examination can help find early gastrointestinal bleeding.

2) The tumor markers are normal

Tumor markers include CEA, AFP, NSE, etc. For cancer patients, dynamic follow-up of markers can help patients find signs of tumor progression. When the marker indicators continue to rise, there is likely to be a risk of recurrence.

It should be noted that different cancers have different sensitive tumor markers. For example, liver cancer corresponds to AFP (alpha-fetoprotein), which is currently clinically mainly used for the diagnosis and efficacy testing of primary liver cancer; NSE (neuron-specific enolase) is used to detect small cell lung cancer; CA125 (CA carcinoid Antigen) is often used to help diagnose ovarian cancer; CA72-4 is currently one of the best tumor markers for the diagnosis of gastric cancer, and has high specificity for gastric cancer.

3) Normal imaging examination

Imaging examinations include: chest X-ray, CT, PET-CT, bone scan, etc. Through the imaging report, you can intuitively reflect the changes in the patient’s body lesions.

For example, many cancers are prone to bone metastases, and bone scans can help find problems early; CT examination can clearly see whether the patient’s lesions are enlarged or reduced, and PET-CT can help confirm whether there is distant metastasis. Even gastroscopy, colonoscopy, etc., for patients with gastrointestinal tumors, can help find changes in the lesions in time.

4)The function of specific organs is normal

In addition to the above-mentioned examinations, doctors will regularly ask some patients to review the functions of certain specific organs, such as thyroid function, liver function, kidney function, etc., especially for patients who have suffered liver and kidney damage during treatment, or drug side effects Patients who cause part of the organ damage, prevent further damage to the organ function.

3. How will the first 5 years be passed after cancer treatment?

In addition to actively cooperating with the doctor’s examination, cancer patients must also improve their behavior, eliminate carcinogenic factors, and change their “cancerous” physique in order to better spend the first 5 years.

1) Thorough treatment

Cancer treatment cannot be “halfway abandoned”. Because of the fear of side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, I choose to withdraw from the battle. Especially for patients with advanced cancer, after regular treatment, anti-relapse treatment should be followed immediately to achieve the goal of eliminating residual cancer cells.

2) Eliminate carcinogenic factors

There are many factors that induce cancer. In addition to the external environment, we must also pay attention to internal factors. Cancer patients should pay attention to maintain a happy mood, relax mentally, and avoid long-term, excessive mental tension and undesirable stimulation.

3) Good diet

Contaminated water, moldy food, cooking with heavy oil and salt, etc. may cause illnesses from the mouth. Therefore, from a health perspective, cancer patients must maintain a light diet and ensure a balanced intake of every food. It is also best to purchase ingredients through formal channels.

4. Develop good living habits

People with irregular living habits, such as singing karaoke all night, playing mahjong, smoking, drinking, etc., may cause “lifestyle cancer”. Especially when cancer patients regain their past bad lifestyles during their recovery period, it will undoubtedly give cancer another opportunity to take advantage of it.

5) Pay attention to review

Cancer review refers not only to regular hospital inspections but also self-examinations. The patient’s self-examination is to observe whether there are new tumors, nodules, ulcers and other manifestations in the original lesion and its vicinity, and whether there is any new pain.

4) If the cancer does not recur after 5 years, there is no need for reexamination?

Not all tumor cells will stay where the original tumor was and wait to be cut off. Some tumors will locally metastasize to other locations through blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, etc., luckily escape a series of treatments, find the opportunity to start again. 10% of cancers will recur within 5 years after surgery, so there will be no recurrence 5 years after treatment, and you must not forget to check again!

The five years after treatment for cancer patients is very critical, and a comprehensive physical examination should be done at least once a year. Especially in the first year after surgery, check every three months; for 2 years after surgery, check every six months; after 2 years after surgery, do one or two detailed physical examinations and laboratory tests every year; 5 after surgery Years later, consider reviewing once every 1 year.

Anti-cancer is a protracted battle, and discharge from cancer treatment actually represents the beginning of another stage. In order to promote recovery and prevent recurrence, every patient should maintain a good lifestyle, insist on review, and keep all indicators normal.

(source:internet, reference only)


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Important Note: The information provided is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as medical advice.