why the princess is not really out of the woods

Kate Middleton announced Tuesday January 14 be in remission from your cancer. In March 2024, she announced that she was undergoing preventive chemotherapy after the detection of cancer at the level of the abdomen. Neither the nature nor the stage of the cancer had been communicated.

It was after a visit to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, specializing in oncology, that the Princess of Wales announced she was in remission. A certain relief for many of his fans, even if caution remains in order.

What does the term remission mean?

Remission corresponds to disappearance of signs and symptoms of the disease: there are no longer any tumors visible during examinations or detectable cancer cells. When no more signs of the disease are detectable, we speak of complete remission – a term preferred by caregivers to that of cure.

“It is always very complicated as a doctor to commit to healing with a patient,” explained Professor Steven Le Gouill, hematologist, director of the Institut Curie hospital complex.

Telling a patient that he is cured is telling him that he will never relapse.

The risk of recurrence remains very present

However, observing that no more signs of the disease are detectable means that there are no longer any visible signs with the means available to caregivers. But that doesn’t mean that there are no residual cells left in the body.

This may be undetectable with the imaging or sample analysis devices available at the time T but could reactivate the cancer months or years later.

We then talk about relapse of the disease“also called recurrence, is the reappearance of cancer cells, in the same place or in another region of the body,” explains the National Cancer Institute.

It can occur very soon after the end of treatments but also after a long period of remission.

When can we start thinking about healing?

The term cure is more often used by statisticians who manipulate “the five-year survival rate”continues the National Cancer Institute.

They estimate that a patient has a high chance of being cured when, five years after diagnosis, he finds the same life expectancy as the entire population of the same age, same sex and not having had cancer.

A rate to be handled with caution since, as oncologist Alain Toledano explained to us, “certain cancers have a peak of relapse at two to three years, others at six or seven years. So, we cannot tell a patient five years after cancer that he is cured.

Follow-up that can last a lifetime

In remission, after treatments, opens a phase of active surveillance and regular monitoring in order to detect as early as possible a possible recurrence of the disease (the reappearance of cancer cells) and the occurrence of a new cancer.

The follow-up time depends on the cancer but lasts, according to the Inca, at least five years or even all life.

With Destination Santé.

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