Remission of a disease is a medical concept that implies a reduction or disappearance of signs of an existing disease. The presence of such a condition is typical for peptic ulcer, various types of allergies, psoriasis, tuberculosis, mental disorders, cancer, etc.
Today we will find out in more detail what remission is, how it occurs in individual cases of diseases, and what types of remissions doctors distinguish.
When remissions of various diseases occur
Most often, remission is a consequence of either the characteristics of the course of the disease (for example, with malaria, remission occurs due to the peculiar life cycle inherent in the malarial plasmod), or as a result of treatment of the patient, in which there is still no complete recovery (for example, in case of cancer).
There are also remissions caused by changes in the body's response to pathogens (this is typical for seasonal allergic reactions or manifestations of a herpes infection).
Partial and complete remission: what is it in medicine
Doctors, in particular oncologists and hematologists, describing the patient's condition, operate with the concept of partial and complete remission. These options for stopping the development of the disease differ in the degree of disappearance of its signs observed in the patient.
Thus, complete remission is the disappearance of both the previously manifested external symptoms of the disease and the signs determined in the course of laboratory tests. True, such a condition in a patient is sometimes quickly replaced by an exacerbation, so patients are often forced to use maintenance therapy during the period of remission. But sometimes the described phenomenon is set for months or even years.
By the way, experts consider a patient whose complete remission lasts more than five years to be free of oncological or hematological pathology. In such cases, it is understood that the probability of a new occurrence of a given disease (relapse) in such a patient is practically at the same level as in ordinary people who have not been ill before.
Partial remission, on the other hand, refers to a process in which some of the symptoms of the disease persist, but are usually less pronounced.
Types of remission for leukemia
And for leukemia, for example, there is a more accurate gradation of remission in determining, since in some cases, for example, with a diagnosis of "acute lymphoblastic leukemia" in children, a long-term remission is difficult to distinguish from a complete recovery.
So, with clinical and hematological remission disappearclinical signs of the disease, and the composition of the bone marrow and peripheral blood is normal.
When cytogenetic - tumor cells are not detected by cytogenetic analysis.
Molecular examination is characterized by the fact that traces of cancer cells are not found even when using the methods of molecular genetic analysis.
What is spontaneous remission
In addition to the above types of slowing down the course of the disease, there is also spontaneous remission.
This is a very little-studied phenomenon, which can even be defined as mysterious, in which, for example, in a cancer patient, all laboratory signs of pathology and externally manifested symptoms suddenly disappear. Of course, it is necessary to make a reservation that this phenomenon is quite rare, but nevertheless it is recorded in the history of medicine.
And scientists are trying to understand what exactly causes the body to heal in these cases? What triggers his successful immune attack against cancer cells?
What factors can cause long-term remission in cancer
Researchers who have studied the spontaneous remission of cancer patients suggest in such cases to take into account that in getting rid of a terrible disease, the psychological state of the patient who recognized his diagnosis often played a big role, namely his attitude to the situation as to something passing, not interfering with life.
It is important to know that, strange as it sounds, acute bacterial infections suffered by cancer patients, such as streptococcal orstaphylococcal, accompanied by hunger and fever, also sometimes push the body to a powerful immune attack and then complete remission.
A few words in conclusion
So what is remission? Is this a lull before a new round of illness or getting rid of it? In each case, doctors will give different answers. But one must always remember that this condition often depends not only on the skill of the doctor, but also on the will to win over the disease in the patient.
