Kate has cancer

[Doseofreality]

Breaking news.

Yes from what I understand there is certain cancers that are contained and others which can spread, and they can’t see if all the cells have been eliminated, so those people are given preventative chemo. The ones where it is contained they know it is removed completely.

I think Kate must have had a tumour removed, but there is potential all the cells have not been removed, so the chemo is for that reason.

i hope you and your mum are ok 💐

24 hours later and social media range from blame Kensington Palace to Catherine is lying. The conspiracy theories are still out in full force. All rather sad and worse mainly pushed by women

Its bizarre, wtf is wrong with people. I wonder if it'll be identified in years to come as some kind of social media induced derangement syndrome.

We can all be thankful we didn't have Twitter etc when Diana died. It was bad enough seeing the crowds imagine what rubbish would have been online.

As I have understood the various statements -
Jan - She had serious abdominal surgery, but it was not thought to be cancerous, although there would be a significant recovery period.
End Feb - In depth biopsy results showed that there had been cancer present - which I interpreted as having been removed during the surgery.
March - Catherine announced that she is having chemo - which I assume is to mop up any stray cancer cells that remain in her body.

She and William - quite rightly - took time to get their own heads around the situation, and keep their DC aware of what was happening, before she made the announcement yesterday. Totally reasonable.

Where all of this 'KP lied' rubbish comes from, I just don't know.

Wish Catherine speedy and effective treatment, and send love to the whole family. Very best wishes to all of our families who have been or are still being affected by cancer.

Now there are videos on TikTok speculating that it’s not really Kate but an AI version of her. The conspiracy theories are getting more ridiculous than ever.

which I assume is to mop up any stray cancer cells that remain in her body.

Christ.

No idea why you felt a timeline was needed (especially one that sounds fairly inaccurate).

@Lampslights

Your account of cancer, how it might spread or not, is completely inaccurate. Just in case anyone is reading it assuming it's factual.

Why on earth are people still speculating on the finer detail of Catherine's illness? Did her statement achieve nothing?

Then do correct me, and all the oncologists in the media saying the same?

What sounds inaccurate? She said in her statement that cancer hadn't originally been suspected, but a biopsy revealed it had been. Had, in the past tense. And that the chemo was preventative. So to ensure all potentially dangerous cells are dealt with. That's pretty much what ajandjjmum said I think.

@DappledThings

'Mopping up stray cancer cells in her body' sounds accurate to you? Really?

We don't, rightly, know the nature of the abdominal surgery but clearly cancer could have been a possibility, given it was initially felt the condition was non-cancerous. The way the biopsy is mentioned, is not how it happens.

Then do correct me, and all the oncologists in the media saying the same?

I won't, given I find all this armchair non-medically qualified speculation utterly prurient.

But just for the avoidance of doubt, speaking generally, all cancers can spread. The decision regarding chemo or radiotherapy post-surgery will be based on a) the nature & location of the original cancer and b) the balance of risk and benefit from further treatment. Either way, the patient will be monitored closely in the period after.

I don't understand, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be arsey here, but what do you mean that isn't how a biopsy happens? As I understood it they didn't think it was cancer but it was a possibility so whatever was removed during surgery was biopsied and showed it was cancerous (this is the same as happened to my mum in December but fortunately her biopsy said it was benign).

So there were cancerous cells, which are believed to have been removed but the chemo is preventative to ensure any other potentially cancerous cells are removed. "Mopping up" might not be a particularly technical term but it is roughly what's happening isn't it?

Did you just come on for a fight? And please google at least before you post. No one said they couldn’t spread. Of course they can. We were discussing contained cancers v uncontained at the point of surgery and the associated treatment ie why some people were offered preventative chemo and others were not.

what do you mean that isn't how a biopsy happens?

I'm conscious I'm doing what I'm giving out about - so won't post further after this.
However, speaking generally only, and not about Catherine, an initial biopsy is conducted pre-surgery or as part of initial exploration.

Following surgery, a full section will be done on what's been removed; this takes some time, and regardless of the first result, that will indicate the presence of cancer or not, and the next steps in treatment.

Did you just come on for a fight? And please google at least before you post. No one said they couldn’t spread

No, I didn't. I just object to misinformation.

You said:
Yes from what I understand there is certain cancers that are contained and others which can spread,

I

Posted too soon.

I do get what you're trying to say, but it's still inaccurate.

OK, but that's not what happened to my mum last year so I wasn't surprised by it being given as a timeline here. She (my mum, not Kate) was scheduled for surgery to remove a potentially cancerous mass from her stomach on the basis of scans alone. No biopsy was done until after the surgery.

Regardless, none of us have the detail on the form of cancer and presentation in this case, so have no idea of why decisions were made in the way they were.

No biopsy was done until after the surgery.

That's what I referred to in terms of as part of exploration.

I hope your mum has recovered well since.

Yeah, she's fine thank you.

I'm even more confused now. You said usually a biopsy is done pre-surgery. I thought Kate's statement said it was done as part of the surgery which matched my (admittedly limited) experience and the PP's timeline you were querying.

Now you're saying when you meant exploration you did mean during surgery. So we seem to be both in agreement and not at the same time.

I must be misunderstanding but I don't think it's getting anywhere.

I just thought that timeline was a good summary of why information they had themselves changed and why there has been no deceit as people are claiming

My mum thinks she may have cervical cancer which apparently is hard to treat and doesn't have a high life expectancy if you have it and it doesn't present with many signs/symptoms

Why post this, I’ve had cervical cancer twice, both times treated and recovered. I get yearly smears, was six months. Both times caught by abnormal smears.

Why would your mum think this? She no idea what signs or symptoms Kate had never mind what type of cancer. Pure speculation. There is so many in the abdomen, does she even know all the organs in there?

And ovarian cancer has a survival rate of 50 percent after 3 years, plus the cancer, whatever type it was, has been removed and she’s on a recovery pathway with preventative chemo for any remaining cells.

I don’t call 50% survival to 3 years high life expectancy, but none of this is relevant to the thread. Kate has not decided to give details of cancer type or stage so I think all this speculation is in poor taste.