Читать книгу The Cancer Directory - Dr. Daniel Rosy - Страница 91

Working out the chances of your treatment being successful is difficult because the response to treatment varies considerably from one person to another. However, the three essentials that guide your outcome are the:

• primary site of the tumour

• stage of the tumour

• grade of the tumour.

Another important piece of information is how you respond to treatment. There are four types of response and you will hear the following terms being used:

• A ‘complete response’ is where the tumour has disappeared completely

• A ‘partial response’ is where it has shrunk to half its size, as visualized by X-rays or some other quantifiable measure

• ‘Stable disease’ means that the disease is not growing

• ‘Progressive disease’ means that growth is continuing despite treatment.

Following surgery, if the primary tumour has been completely removed, then technically the patient has had a complete response. With chemotherapy, it is vital to assess response early on in the course of treatment to make sure there will be benefit and that it is worthwhile to continue the treatment.