NED (No Evidence Of Disease)

"NED" stands for "no evidence of disease" and is probably the term most often used to describe a patient's status after treatment. Unfortunately, we can never truly say a patient is cured of cancer - the best we can do is say that we find no evidence of it. I will often tell my early-stage (lymph node negative) patients after surgery that they have no evidence of disease, and the medical oncologists will use the term after they've evaluated scans and bloodwork and find no abnormality.

It's important to realize that you can have areas of cancer, not detected by scans or blood tests, and still be considered NED. I'd look at NED as not perfect (very few things in life are), but still a good place to be. "NED" stands for "no evidence of disease" and is probably the term most often used to describe a patient's status after treatment. Unfortunately, we can never truly say a patient is cured of cancer - the best we can do is say that we find no evidence of it. I will often tell my early-stage (lymph node negative) patients after surgery that they have no evidence of disease, and the medical oncologists will use the term after they've evaluated scans and bloodwork and find no abnormality.

It's important to realize that you can have areas of cancer, not detected by scans or blood tests, and still be considered NED. I'd look at NED as not perfect (very few things in life are), but still a good place to be.