When used in medicine, Cure implies that a disease is gone and won’t come back. But this is not always the case, and a patient’s definition of cure may be different from their doctor’s. In some cases, a “cure” means eradicating the disease and in others it is a matter of eliminating symptoms or controlling them so that they do not impact daily living. Clearly, precise terminology is important for effective communication between patients and physicians.
A number of medical conditions don’t have definitive cures, so doctors are often hesitant to use the word. This is because they do not want to mislead or raise unrealistic expectations. They also know that the success of a treatment plan can vary from patient to patient, making it difficult to determine if and when a person has reached a state of cure.
In epidemiology, the term “cure” refers to the point at which a population’s mortality rate returns to the death rates of an age-matched general population (i.e., the proportion of cancer patients who have achieved statistical cure). Clinicians have a more personal approach to the concept of cure, and they are often hesitant to discuss this with their patients. They prefer to focus on the goal of achieving long-term remission or limiting the progression of disease.