Kate Middleton has cancer: oncologist reveals procedure the Princess of Wales is undergoing

On March 22, 42-year-old Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, published a touching video message in which she denied various rumors regarding her absence from public appearances. The wife of Prince William and future Queen of the UK revealed that she has been diagnosed with cancer.

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The cancer was detected after an abdominal surgery in January 2024 in London. It was successful, but the tests taken after the surgery showed the presence of cancer.

As you can imagine, it took time. It took time for me to recover from major surgery and to start treatment. I am healthy and getting stronger every day by focusing on the things that will help me heal: mind, body and spirit,” Prince William’s wife stated.

Kate Middleton is now on the road to recovery. In late February, she began a course of “preventative” chemotherapy.

Exactly what type of cancer the Princess of Wales has is not being reported, and Kensington Palace is urging people not to speculate about it. The royal family representatives added that the future queen is in good spirits and is focused on recovery.

What is cancer?

Our body is made up of more than 100 billion cells, and cancer usually starts with changes in a small group of them or even in a single cell, notes Gavin Metcalfe, an oncology biologist and lecturer in biomedical sciences at Anglia Ruskin University.

In the human body, there are different types of cells depending on where in the body they are located and what function they perform. The size, number and function of each is usually tightly regulated by genes – groups of codes stored in our DNA – that tell cells how to grow and divide.

However, mutations in DNA can change the way they grow and multiply, often leading to the formation of a tumor, or solid (solid) neoplasm. Abnormal cells can accumulate in the blood or sometimes in the bone marrow.

There are more than 200 types of cancer in all, but they all start with mutations in the DNA contained in each cell.

How is cancer treated?

Treatment options depend on many factors, including where the tumor is located, how large it is, and whether it has spread to other parts of the body. The main methods include surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy uses drugs that target and destroy the rapidly dividing cells in the body. This approach is effective, but it also has negative side effects. The fact is that the drugs also target healthy rapidly dividing cells, such as those in the hair or digestive system. Therefore, chemotherapy often leads to hair loss, nausea and diarrhea.

Chemotherapy can be used either prophylactically, as in the case of Kate Middleton, or therapeutically.

What is prophylactic chemotherapy?

Oncologist, chemotherapist, chief oncology specialist of the Hadassah branch of the Israeli Hadassah clinic

“If we talk about prophylactic, or preventive, chemotherapy, it is a procedure that is carried out after radical, for example, surgical, treatment of malignant neoplasm. It is also sometimes called postoperative, but the most correct name used by oncologists is adjuvant chemotherapy”.

Its goals are to eliminate the remaining cancer cells in the body and reduce the risk of the disease returning (so-called relapse).

If circulating tumor cells remain in the body, including during surgery, chemotherapy can affect them by disrupting the process of cell division. This preventive therapy is not aimed at preventing cancer, but at reducing the risk of recurrence of the disease in order to generally improve treatment outcomes.

A combination of several treatment methods – surgery, radiation therapy, preventive chemotherapy and hormone therapy – for breast cancer, for example, will increase the chances of a complete cure from the disease.

How to recognize cancer at an early stage?

The first and most important rule: to recognize cancer at an early stage, it is important to take care of your health. First of all, it is necessary to undergo the necessary screenings, which are developed for many cancers: breast cancer, cervical cancer, lung cancer, prostate cancer, colorectal cancer.

These are diseases that can be detected early enough in time and successfully treated. The results of treatment of a disease detected at early stages are significantly better than at later stages.

It is also worth paying attention to cases of cancer in your family, that is, the anamnesis. If any of your close relatives, especially the first line of kinship (father or mother), had cases of cancer, it is worthwhile to conduct a genetic study for hereditary forms of oncology. This way you will know that in your particular situation, the risks are slightly higher than the population average.

For such patients, individual surveillance programs are developed. As noted by a doctor-oncologist, it is necessary to ensure that this increased risk is not realized, or, in the case of tumor development, to “catch” the disease at the earliest stage: to conduct timely diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

For women, it is very important to conduct self-examination of the mammary glands. You can do this once a month when taking a shower. Change in the shape of the breast, the appearance of “lemon peel” on the skin, unusual discharge from the nipples – this is a reason to consult a mammologist.

If new formations appear on the skin, on any part of it, they change in size, shape, they appear nodules or ulcerations, it is an alarming sign and an absolute reason to consult an oncologist.

The following symptoms also require consultation with a specialist:

The appearance of blood in the stool or in the urine;
prolonged treatment of the disease, which does not lend itself to treatment by a general practitioner;
fever in the evenings;
profuse night sweats;
weight loss;
lack of appetite;
pronounced weakness.

Signs of cancer can be quite varied. The most important thing is that the doctor who observes you (for example, cardiologist, therapist, gastroenterologist), in case of an unusual development of symptoms, prescribe the necessary examinations.