HRH The Princess of Wales Is Being Treated For Cancer

[TheSquareMile]

Radio 4 announcing it now.

Frankly I'd be embarrassed to admit having the same opinion as Whippets. I note they have not come on to defend their ridiculous opinions

What because saying that wasnt Kate at the farm shop (which is even more evident now) means you have no compassion ? Okay 👌

I wish them in her family peace, a chance to get better,. Chemotherapy is dreadful and they all need peace and quiet. This is their journey for life.
I wish her the best and my hope is that she will be left alone by the press, etc

@buzzlightyearsaway you need to be a bit more specific than ‘abdominal’. There’s a lot of organs in the abdomen, and the cancer will originate in one of them - not the whole abdomen.

I do worry it’s ovarian cancer - that is often diagnosed late, because it’s so asymptomatic and it spreads quickly. She will however get the best treatment

Absolutely horrendous for anyone, but to have to do this in the public eye - with all the vicious rumours - the PoW is a very strong woman, whether you like the Royals or not.

@Rosieleerose are you saying you were forced to share your own speculation about the PoW on a recent thread because of the PR approach?

Go and make some more tin foil hats.

That must be rare in a young woman. She's fortunate enough to have found it but i guess that's part due to her privileged position

“Privileged” in that she had a serious enough condition that she needed major surgery, and then had whatever she had removed in that surgery sent to pathology and cancer identified? The first is not at all uncommon in the NHS, the second is an absolutely normal procedure.

Yes. Nothing privileged about having major surgery and cancer being found.

Exactly. And what part of "she was already having major surgery" do people find so hard to understand?

You do know how the monarch became head of the Church of England, don't you?

The POW's cancer admission is a touchy subject for many people right now. I can't imagine what she's going through as a healthy, 40 y.o woman with small children. It doesn't matter if you are the Princess of Wales or Mary Smith, medical news of this kind are horrific for the person and their family.

I think it's important tough, to clarify one thing she said in her statement that's not true. Chemotherapy is not a preventive measure against the possibility of future cancerous cells developing. Chemotherapy is a treatment against cancer, often with horrific side effects, that doctors recommend when surgery alone is not enough.

I wish Catherine a complete recovery, but for many of us with family and friends fighting cancer with chemo, this "preventative" statement is wrong Prevention is a vaccine to prevent future serious health problems from developing. There is nothing preventative in chemo, it's a horrible, horrible, treatment.

Maybe not as much as you think. I lost two friends and relative to cancer in their 40s. Only one was abdominal cancer but, when I think of them, I feel grateful to have been so fortunate as to have got more years than them with my family.

Terribly sad, as it would be for anyone, but as the mother of 3 young children she must be beside herself. And William too, his wife and his father having cancer at the same time? Awful, awful situation all round and I wish them all the very best.

Yes, that's what im asking!

Me too re ovaries

Is it possible that by 'preventive' they mean precautionary? Just to be sure they're mopping any stray cells up? I thought that was what chemo often did.

She most certainly is privileged and she's not on the nhs waiting list

So yes, she's been getting the best care and drugs that money can buy

Im not diminishing what she has but average Josephine wouldn't probably have had a diagnosis this quickly. Thats why ovarian cancer is so flipping deadly

Oh dear, point scoring on the back of all this <sigh>. 😒

There are many types of cancer, some need only surgery and follow up, others don't even need surgery and treatment is a combination of different drugs (not chemo), based on suppressing hormones, immunotherapy or radio. Chemo is a treatment with horrible side effects that no doctor will recommend unless there is a need for it.

It's to kill any minuscule cells that may still be present. There may not be any left. But in case there are any it will hopefully prevent a reoccurrence . That's why it's called preventative chemotherapy

I think you have misunderstood about preventative chemo. I had cancer 10 years ago. They removed the tumour but some of the cancer cells had spread from the tumour to my lymph nodes so I had them removed as well. They didn't know whether there were any more cancer cells that had travelled elsewhere because cancer cells have to be a certain size before they show up on a CT scan. For all I and the consultants knew, I could have been cancer free after my tumour and lymph nodes were removed but just incase some rogue cancer cells had travelled elsewhere they gave me chemo as a preventative measure to kill off any cancer cells that could have been present.

Yes, I'm aware of all that, but I thought when chemo is used, it's often to clear up any remnants where there's a risk of that, as it could restart the cancer somewhere else. I may be wrong but I was with a friend when she was given chemo following surgery for what I thought was this reason. Another just had surgery and that was it (which is probably best case with cancer).

The doctors would advise based on type of cancer and tumour margins etc