Hi Everyone,
Around 4-5 months or so ago I posted that my 86 year old father had been diagnosed with colon cancer. He is stage 3 with a "well differentiated" tumor of about 4 centimeters, plus some lymph node involvement. Since that time he has undergone chemo-radiation treatments with the goal of shrinking the tumor for a potential subsequent surgery. Well, the treatments have ended around 6 weeks ago and the doctor told him the tumor had shrunk to some degree (to what extent I don't know). His radiologist has recently told him a post-treatment CT scan showed no spread of cancer to anywhere else, and his lungs seemed okay as well. He further told my father that the cancer is "dormant" at this point. I've done a bit of Googling of that term and I'm still not entirely sure what this means from a practical standpoint. Is "dormancy" about the best outcome that could expected from chemo-radiation alone? "Dormancy" sounds like it's a good thing, but then again I don't know. Does the cancer come back more powerfully after a dormant stage? Can it perhaps lay dormant for a long period? Any info is appreciated to help me get my head around what this means. Thanks very much.
G