Doing really well but it's never far from the surface

A disappearance of a disease as a result of treatment. Complete remission means that all disease is gone. Partial remission means that the disease is significantly improved by treatment, but residual traces of the disease are still present.

Mentioned in: Behcet's Syndrome, Choriocarcinoma, Leukemias, Chronic, Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis

I think when people usually use the word (loosely)their idea is "partial remission " (as defined by the above ) in other words they don't know what their talking about ! 

Not sure I've explained my thoughts properly !!