When I had cancer, they talked about being cured and remission. This year, I’ve had a series of episodes with back pain that’s not related to my past history of cancer. But I never hear the doctor say anything about remission or cure. Is there such a thing with back pain?

Back pain is much more episodic than cancer with a much higher risk of recurrence. In other words, many adults suffer from back pain many times over the course of a lifetime. With cancer, the hope is that anyone diagnosed with cancer will only have it once. Following cancer treatment, the goal is cure, meaning no return or recurrence of the disease.

Whether or not someone with multiple episodes of back pain or ongoing, chronic back pain can be cured is really a point up for debate. Some experts offer the opinion that it’s possible to go into remission. Remission is the absence of disease activity (or back pain) in patients with a chronic problem, but there’s a possibility that the problem could recur.

That’s strictly from a definition point-of-view. There’s much more to it than just back pain. Sometimes patients stop having pain but their activities and function are limited. This may be because they are afraid to move normally in case that movement causes a painful flare-up. Or they may not be able to complete all of their work tasks, so their productivity is down.

In either case, the condition may seem like it’s cured (or in remission) because there’s no pain but any activity limitation suggests otherwise.