I may be missing jargon, so forgive me for the double negative. I want to talk about the situation when the disease is still there but has not spread. I'm not sure if that is the same thing as stable disease or if there is a name for this result. I'm wondering about how common it is for someone to have treatment and respond to treatment, but not enough for it to be invisible or NED at the conclusion. Is that situation lumped with non-responders and associated with shorter PFD/OS? ie is it binary, like either you won or you lost? How likely is metastases? Should a scan taken 4 weeks after the conclusion of treatment have information to make predictions or is it anyone's guess?
My Dad presented with a very large tumor, so we celebrate being able to knock it back 75% with the standard chemo/rad. Are there benchmarks to measure his relative chances given that it is still there?
Reply # - November 2, 2015, 07:49 AM
Hi Amy,
Hi Amy,
That is a great response, definitely better than no response. The terms used are complete response (or NED), partial response (usually defined as at least 50% shrinkage), stable and no response. The prognosis improves as you move up the scale, and it also predicts response to subsequent therapies ("responders respond").
JimC
Forum moderator
Reply # - November 5, 2015, 01:01 PM
Another thought Amy is that
Another thought Amy is that there is usually quite a bit of inflammation for a time after radiation. It's common not to check for response for 3 months after radiation treatment.
Good luck,
Janine