Prognosis is apredictionor estimate of the chance of recovery or survival from a disease.
What this means is that your prognosis is not something written in stone.
There are few people who are “average” when it comes to their health.
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Its important to note that these numbers are only numbers, and do not look at individual variations.
Most statistics are also somewhat dated.
Lung cancer is an example where the “prognosis” of the disease may not be very accurate.
Many of the statistics we use that talk about survival are several years old.
A good example is lung cancer.
Look at some of themany factorsthat can affect the survival rate for people with lung cancer.
Some of these are more likely to be used than others based on the expected survival with cancer.
Other terms are used more often as parts of clinical trials.
With more aggressive tumors, such as lung cancer, the prognosis is often described in this way.
PFS is often used when describing treatments such as targeted therapies for cancer.
Disease-free survival:Disease-free survival refers to the length of time that someone remains free of detectable cancer.
That said, there are some things individuals can do to raise their odds.
A Word of Caution
It’s important to again point out what prognosis means.
Yet with cancer, there are even more variables factored in than those that determine the height.
It is also a statistic derived from past experience.
Try reframing the statistics in your mind.
A Word from Verywell
Some people find it helpful to be given a prognosis with their cancer.
There isn’t a right or wrong, only what you prefer.
It’s yours alone.
That said, with the advances in cancer treatment it’s often hard to estimate prognosis.
Frequently Asked Questions
A diagnosis is a healthcare provider’s determination of what condition a patient has.
A prognosis is their educated prediction of the course of the disease and how a person may recover.
A poor prognosis refers to an estimation that there is a low chance of recovery from a disease.
National Cancer Institute.Understanding cancer prognosis.
