I keep hearing about 2 year and 5 year thresholds. What exactly does that mean?

[LynneJ]

Do we expect it to come back in 2 years, 5 years?

Are we OK if it doesn't?

[John_Mills Volunteer]

Hi Lynne,

It's not a term I'm familiar with. Where did you come across it? Certainly, with ANCA vasculitis, the longer you have been free of symptoms, then you are less likely to suffer a relapse but you can never assume that you are "safe" as it can still come back. The "5 year survival" rate is used routinely in cancer, but is slightly different for vasculitis as it is an auto-immune disease. I think it is important to realise that there are 2 types of remission: 1) drug induced remission, where you are receiving active treatment for vasculitis and 2) full remission where you are taking no vasculitis medication. There are 2 stages in treatment of vasculitis:-

a) Induction, where the disease is initially brought under control usually using powerful drugs b) maintenance where the disease is kept under control using less powerful drugs. Failure to control the disease fully at stage a) may resut in early relapse. Failure to keep the disease under control for long enough in stage b) may lead to relapse. Five or more years of disease free maintenance is not considered unreasonable.

John