New terms

Below are a few new terms I learned during the past few months. The world they describe didn't really exist until I learned I had cancer. I've done my homework, and I know about these things, but they don't really come into focus until their time is ripe.


Event Free Survival Time.

Overall Survival Time.

Treatment Objectives:

1. Extending disease-free survival and the length of life;
2. Providing lasting relief of pain and other disease symptoms.

Terms:

Relapse: The disease begins to progress again.

Refractory: The disease doesn’t respond to treatment.

Palliative: The treatment is designed to reduce the symptoms and pain associated with the disease rather than to extend the survival of the patient.

Conventional Therapy: Cyclic treatment given to expose and kill myeloma cells. Conventional chemotherapy is typically given to older patients, or to patients who will undergo SCT

Salvage Therapy: Treatment for patients who have not responded to primary therapy or who experience relapsed disease. High dose dexamathasone alone or in combination with other drugs.

Radiation Therapy: To damage cancer cells and prevent them from growing. To stop bone damage, and/or in conjunction with Stem Cell Transplants.

Supportive Therapy: Address the symptoms and complications of the disease.