The Power of Understanding Cancer’s Language
- Cancer is not a single, fixed state; many people live for years with disease that is stable or well controlled.
- Doctors use specific terms to measure how treatments are working, not to define a person’s overall health.
- Learning this language can help patients better understand their options and what treatment success looks like.
- Greater understanding empowers patients to ask informed questions and advocate for their care with confidence.
SurvivorNet spoke with Larry Norton, Senior Vice President in the Office of the Hospital President at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Founding Scientific Director of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, about how doctors think about treatment success—and what patients should know.
Read MoreRather than focusing only on cure versus no cure, modern cancer care often centers on controlling the disease and preserving quality of life. Many patients live full, meaningful lives while their cancer is being managed.
“I personally have patients with metastatic breast cancer for decades and decades without any trouble from the cancer,” Dr. Norton says. “The cancer is still there, but I’m able to control it with various treatments. You can think of it like a chronic disease, like diabetes, where the disease doesn’t go away, but it can be controlled, so you can have a perfectly long and normal life.”
How Doctors Measure Progress Toward That Goal
To reach that goal, doctors rely on specific measurements. These terms were created to evaluate how treatments perform—not to define a person’s overall health or worth.
“The terms that we use were created so that we can analyze different types of treatments,” Dr. Norton says. “They’re strictly terms that are applicable to clinical trials so that we can assess the activity of a certain drug and how long that drug works, and compare it to other drugs.”
“The other important thing is overall survival—how long you’re going to live with the therapy, with the disease—and also quality of life,” Dr. Norton explains. “A lot of that is associated with toxicities from the drugs or problems from the cancer that is not really optimal. You want to have a long, healthy life, and that’s what we have to achieve.”
“Increasing progression-free survival—the duration that the cancer is under control—is important,” Dr. Norton says. “You can have more time with your family. You can see your children grow. You can see your friends achieve great things. You can achieve great things yourself. And it may also extend the length of your life as well.”
“These terms are meaningful,” Dr. Norton says, “…so that we can compare different drugs and get a handle on which drug is better and how it should be utilized.”
Common terms patients may hear include:
- Response rate – How much the tumor shrinks with treatment
- Complete response – Shrinkage to the point that cancer cannot be seen on imaging tests
- Progression-free survival – The time from starting therapy until the cancer begins to grow again
- Overall survival – How long a person lives with treatment
Learning the Language Helps You Advocate
While medical terminology can feel intimidating, taking time to learn these basic concepts can be empowering. Understanding how doctors measure treatment success gives patients a clearer picture of what’s happening in their body and why certain decisions are being made. This knowledge can help patients ask more informed questions, participate actively in treatment discussions, and advocate for themselves with greater confidence.
Bottom line: A metastatic breast cancer diagnosis does not always mean a person is “sick” in the way many imagine. With modern therapies, many patients live long, meaningful lives with their disease under control. Learning the language of cancer care can provide clarity—and a greater sense of control—as patients move forward.
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