Cancer therapy terms (smoke and mirrors)
[They managed to call 5 year survival a 'cure.' Then a whole bundle of terms has sprung up to disguise the fact chemotherapy isn't going to cure you. Of course, you need to suppress anyone else who can cure cancer from being heard, done by controlling the media and Suppressing the word Cure by non-Allopathic therapies.]
"Response," for example, simply means the tumor shrank by at least half for one month. It does not imply extensive survival or quality of life. http://www.canhelp.com/CANHELP/do_dont.htm
Complete response (CR)---total disappearance of all measurable tumours (the primary site plus all detectable metastases)
Partial response (PR)--- reduction by half or more of all measurable tumour
relapse-free survival,
Complete remissions
time to recurrence
Disease-free survival (DFS)
Actual survival
International Prognostic Index (IPI)
disease-free survival and overall survival
overall survival (OS)
cumulative disease-specific survival rates
adjuvant chemotherapy
"Dose dense" means giving drugs in a shorter time period than usual. For example, drug doses that are normally given over a three-week period are now being administered in two weeks, with shorter intervals between treatments. http://www.cancerdecisions.com/032103_page.html
Drugs may be reported to increase survival but upon closer examination this turns out to be an increase in "relapse-free survival," or "time to recurrence," and not an actual increase in median overall survival. Yet, I would argue that only an increase in overall survival conveys a true benefit to the patient. A patient who has an increased relapse-free period, but no increase in actual life time, is not actually benefited by treatment, except in a psychological sense. Real benefit in terms of overall survival is rarely demonstrated by chemotherapy for the solid tumors of adults. [2000] The Grand Illusion of Chemotherapy by Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D.
It is important to keep one's eye on the terminology. A "partial response" is defined as the shrinkage of measurable tumor by 50 percent or more for one month or more. But such 'responses' are of dubious therapeutic value and do not necessarily correlate with increased survival. http://www.cancerdecisions.com/062103_page.html
The FDA defines an 'effective' drug as one that achieves a 50% or more reduction in tumor size for 28 days. In the vast majority of cases there is absolutely no correlation between shrinking tumors for 28 days and the cure of the cancer or extension of life. So, when a doctor says 'effective' to a cancer patient, it does not mean it cures cancer-only temporary shrinks a tumor. Chemotherapy, An Interesting Choice by Jon Barron