Charles and Camilla 3: Charles' Medical Issues

[tabitha2]

 Its moot now anyway as Charles is not going abroad now for a long time. Harry and Meghan are going to have to go there if they want their children to know the paternal relatives. It’s all on them now. 

[Ozlsn]

So one of the Royal watchers/commentators/hanger-on-eres (Tom Bower if that means anything) has said it's likely that Charles will avoid chemotherapy and go with natural remedies.

In which case I agree with the twitter user congratulating the UK on the likely forthcoming public holiday. 

More seriously though I hope he is open about what treatments he is doing, whether he is combining that with natural therapies and basically leading by example the best way to combine the two if he goes that route. 

[VGL]

Not all cancers are treated with chemo.

Tom Bower isn't a fan of Charles from what I understand.

[Four is Enough]

There is a less physical, but still effective way, for C and M to get to know A and L.. ZOOM ! People have long distance relationships pretty commonly now since covid...

 

[Loveday]

20 minutes ago, Four is Enough said:

There is a less physical, but still effective way, for C and M to get to know A and L.. ZOOM ! People have long distance relationships pretty commonly now since covid...

 

I had a wonderful Facetime meeting with my son and granddaughter yesterday. They live halfway across the country so we don't see them in person too often. Harry and Meghan could arrange with the King to do the same, it's insanely easy.

[tabitha2]

Only If it could be depended on that H&M would not use it for their advantage later. Or put the family conversations in one of their literary masterpieces. 

[louisa05]

16 hours ago, Ozlsn said:

So one of the Royal watchers/commentators/hanger-on-eres (Tom Bower if that means anything) has said it's likely that Charles will avoid chemotherapy and go with natural remedies.

In which case I agree with the twitter user congratulating the UK on the likely forthcoming public holiday. 

More seriously though I hope he is open about what treatments he is doing, whether he is combining that with natural therapies and basically leading by example the best way to combine the two if he goes that route. 

The announcement said he’s beginning treatment at a London hospital. That’s not likely to be alternative medicine. 

[Ozlsn]

7 hours ago, louisa05 said:

The announcement said he’s beginning treatment at a London hospital. That’s not likely to be alternative medicine. 

Glad of it. As said previously though if he does also do some natural therapies I hope he models how to do it in conjunction with standard treatment and keeping everyone informed of what's being taken when, and what amounts. 

[47of74]

Some good news about Charles

Quote

Wearing a tan overcoat against the February chill and carrying a rolled-up umbrella, Charles was joined by Queen Camilla at St. Mary Magdalene Church, just a few hundred yards from Sandringham House where the king is recuperating after his first treatment for an unspecified form of cancer.

The 20,000-acre Sandringham estate, some 110 miles (180 kilometers) north of London, is a favorite refuge of the king’s and offers a place of shelter where he can isolate from the risk of infection.

The appearance came a day after Charles expressed thanks for the messages of support he has received from the public. In a statement issued late Saturday, the monarch said that such thoughts are “the greatest comfort and encouragement.”

Charles has visited the estate regularly since he was a child, when he would run through the halls playing tag and hide-and-seek with his mother, according to biographer Jonathan Dimbleby. In later years he has retreated to the estate on the north coast of Norfolk to enjoy hunting and nature walks through the windswept countryside.

I liked the mention of him playing tag and hide and seek with Elizabeth at Sandringham.

[tabitha2]

Three mountain bikers run into the King just out walking by himself  in Scotland. Starts at 4:25

 

 

[PennySycamore]

On 2/13/2024 at 10:29 AM, tabitha2 said:

Three mountain bikers run into the King just out walking by himself  in Scotland. Starts at 4:25

 

 

I am reminded of this one tourist who ran into Queen Elizabeth out walking with a security guard or aide at Balmoral and the tourist having no idea wo she was.  The tourist asked her if she's ever met the Queen.  Anyway Her Majesty and the aide had a bit of fun with the unsuspecting tourist.

[Father Son Holy Goat]

Several sources are reporting Charles has pancreatic cancer and has been given 2 years to live. I’m taking this with a grain of salt. The treatment for pancreatic cancer is whipple surgery followed by whatever chemo or radiation is needed. I think it’s more likely that Kate has pancreatic cancer. 

[Loveday]

If the King has pancreatic cancer, the odds are against him living another 2 years. The majority of people with this type of cancer live less than a year post-diagnosis. It's happened twice in my family: my uncle died less than a month after diagnosis, and my mother 9 months. My uncle died on the morning of the day he was to start treatment. 

I think Kate's cancer is reproductive. 

[Father Son Holy Goat]

1 hour ago, Loveday said:

If the King has pancreatic cancer, the odds are against him living another 2 years. The majority of people with this type of cancer live less than a year post-diagnosis. It's happened twice in my family: my uncle died less than a month after diagnosis, and my mother 9 months. My uncle died on the morning of the day he was to start treatment. 

I think Kate's cancer is reproductive. 

My mother passed away 6 weeks after her diagnosis, it is a hard cancer. 
 

[Loveday]

5 minutes ago, Father Son Holy Goat said:

My mother passed away 6 weeks after her diagnosis, it is a hard cancer. 
 

I'm so sorry. 😢 

[Notabug]

2 hours ago, Father Son Holy Goat said:

Several sources are reporting Charles has pancreatic cancer and has been given 2 years to live. I’m taking this with a grain of salt. The treatment for pancreatic cancer is whipple surgery followed by whatever chemo or radiation is needed. I think it’s more likely that Kate has pancreatic cancer. 

Most people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer aren't candidates for a Whipple because the cancer has spread beyond the pancreas.  2 years would be very generous in the case of advanced pancreatic cancer, Only about 20% of people diagnosed with it are candidates for surgery and, even with this very extensive and brutal surgery, combined with chemo, only about a quarter of those diagnosed in early stages live 5 years.  Stage 3 and 4 pancreatic cancers have 5 year survival rates in the single digits.

I think he might have a blood cancer like leukemia or perhaps lymphoma which could've been detected on a chest film or with slight abnormalities a blood count which was investigated and found to be early signs of malignancy,

I think, whatever he has, it is probably not got a great prognosis or they would've shared the type of tumor with the public.

[Loveday]

11 minutes ago, Sharon Mikol said:

Most people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer aren't candidates for a Whipple because the cancer has spread beyond the pancreas.  2 years would be very generous in the case of advanced pancreatic cancer, Only about 20% of people diagnosed with it are candidates for surgery and, even with this very extensive and brutal surgery, combined with chemo, only about a quarter of those diagnosed in early stages live 5 years.  Stage 3 and 4 pancreatic cancers have 5 year survival rates in the single digits.

I think he might have a blood cancer like leukemia or perhaps lymphoma which could've been detected on a chest film or with slight abnormalities a blood count which was investigated and found to be early signs of malignancy,

I think, whatever he has, it is probably not got a great prognosis or they would've shared the type of tumor with the public.

I was just reading about the Whipple surgery. By the time my mother was diagnosed, the cancer was in an ovary and elsewhere. It was way too late for Whipple surgery, although they did remove the ovary due to the pain it was causing her. At her age, 85 (she passed a couple months after her 86th birthday), the doctors recommended chemo to hopefully slow the  cancer down, but even though it wasn't the strongest  chemo she could have had, she didn't really tolerate it too well, and decided to just stop. I think the doctors were surprised she lasted as long as she did after that; after what happened with my uncle, I was surprised, too.

I wonder if the King simply has prostate cancer and is undergoing radiation therapy (or has done and it's finished now). It's an everyday therapy, lasts for about four or five weeks, and after the first week or two it's somewhat uncomfortable, but recovery isn't too bad. I only know about this because my husband was diagnosed recently with prostate cancer (very slow-growing, thankfully, and he has zero symptoms right now but will soon be making some decisions on treatment), and the radiologist explained the treatment thoroughly to us--and then recommended he just have surgery to remove it due to his relatively young age (65) and his overall otherwise good health. I don't know, it just seems that, considering what the King went into hospital for in the first place, that prostate cancer would be the most likely. But of course, with cancer, all too often things are altogether UNlikely.  

[Notabug]

Just now, Loveday said:

 

I wonder if the King simply has prostate cancer and is undergoing radiation therapy (or has done and it's finished now). It's an everyday therapy, lasts for about four or five weeks, and after the first week or two it's somewhat uncomfortable, but recovery isn't too bad. 

The Palace specified that he did not have prostate cancer.

[Loveday]

1 minute ago, Notabug said:

The Palace specified that he did not have prostate cancer.

Thanks, I hadn't heard that! Which is odd as I always have the news on (I don't take Lori Alexander's advice for women to never watch the news!). It must have gotten lost in all the politics and war news in the past weeks. 😕 Well, that's more worrisome, then--I would think that if it was a very treatable cancer with a decent prognosis that the Palace would want it known. 

Ugh. I can't overstate the obvious enough, that I hate and despise cancer with every fiber of my being.😡

[viii]

Prostate cancer seemed the most obvious for Charles but the Palace said he didn’t have it. I think the most common rumour I’ve heard is bladder cancer. 

As for Kate, in line with her surgery, she’s likely to have had either ovarian, uterine or colon cancer imo. I lean towards something productive at this point, myself. Glad they seem to have caught it in early stages for her. 

[moreorlessnu]

This article: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/22/metro/kate-middleton-preventive-chemo/ speculates it is most likely colon or ovarian cancer. 

The complete article is hidden beneath the spoiler.

Spoiler

When Kate, Princess of Wales, disclosed in a video on Friday that she is undergoing “preventative chemotherapy” for cancer, she didn’t reveal much else about her illness. But oncologists say that she is most likely undergoing treatment to prevent the recurrence of a cancer that was removed.

“What they’re probably referring to is what is called ‘adjuvant chemotherapy.’ It can be used for different malignancies after you take out the initial tumor,” said Dr. Aparna Parikh, an expert in gastrointestinal cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Kate did not reveal the type of cancer she had.

It’s often given “when you’re concerned there is a risk for it coming back,” Parikh said. “‘Preventive’ means you can’t see it but the risk is there. If you give chemotherapy, the risk is lower.”

Dr. Julie E. Bauman, director of the George Washington University Cancer Center in Washington, D.C., explained that adjuvant chemotherapy is provided when the surgeon has removed the cancer but “there is a risk that some cancer cells have been left behind, either in that local area or have broken off and traveled to other parts of the body. To see those traveling cells is not possible with any of our imaging technologies.”

Chemotherapy is intended to eradicate all those invisible “travelers,” Bauman said.

Typically adjuvant chemotherapy is given for three to six months in cycles. A cycle might involve an infusion once every three weeks. “The patient goes through side effects, recovers, and then three weeks later we do it again. With each cycle you’re wiping out half of those travelers,” with the goal of getting them all in three to six months, Bauman said.

Based on the princess’s age, gender, and treatment, Bauman said, it’s most likely she had either colon cancer or ovarian cancer. But, she added, “there are many, many other organs and many rare cancers that this could be,” including cancer of the liver or pancreas.

The “best-case scenario” would be a colon cancer caught early, Parikh said. Ovarian and pancreatic cancers have lower survival rates.

As for whether the chemotherapy Kate is undergoing is debilitating, Parikh said the effects of chemo vary depending on the cancer being treated.

In the video, Kate displays a full head of long hair, but one can’t necessarily draw conclusions from that. The most common adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer doesn’t cause hair loss, Bauman said. The treatments for ovarian and endometrial cancers do cause hair loss, but that typically starts about three weeks after a chemo cycle and can be very gradual.

“It depends upon when her chemo started and when the video was recorded,” Bauman said.

Cancers — especially colon cancer — have been increasing in people younger than 50, including people who don’t smoke or suffer from obesity, Parikh said. Although the cause remains a mystery, doctors suspect dietary and other environmental exposures. Antibiotic use in early childhood could change the gut microbiome in ways that promote colon cancer, she said.

“As she is only 42 years old, this is another concerning example of the rising rate of cancer among adults under the age of 50,” Dr. Kimmie Ng, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said in an emailed statement.

“A report released earlier this year by the American Cancer Society showed younger adults to be the only age group with an increase in overall cancer incidence between 1995 and 2020. There is an urgent need for research into the causes of this uptick.”

 

Edited March 23 by moreorlessnu

[FiveAcres]

I lost an in-law to ovarian cancer, so that is where my mind went when I heard the news. I feel for her and her family and hope her treatment is successful.

[Notabug]

18 minutes ago, moreorlessnu said:

This article: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/22/metro/kate-middleton-preventive-chemo/ states speculates it is most likely colon or ovarian cancer. 

The complete article is hidden beneath the spoiler.

  Reveal hidden contents

When Kate, Princess of Wales, disclosed in a video on Friday that she is undergoing “preventative chemotherapy” for cancer, she didn’t reveal much else about her illness. But oncologists say that she is most likely undergoing treatment to prevent the recurrence of a cancer that was removed.

“What they’re probably referring to is what is called ‘adjuvant chemotherapy.’ It can be used for different malignancies after you take out the initial tumor,” said Dr. Aparna Parikh, an expert in gastrointestinal cancers at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Kate did not reveal the type of cancer she had.

It’s often given “when you’re concerned there is a risk for it coming back,” Parikh said. “‘Preventive’ means you can’t see it but the risk is there. If you give chemotherapy, the risk is lower.”

Dr. Julie E. Bauman, director of the George Washington University Cancer Center in Washington, D.C., explained that adjuvant chemotherapy is provided when the surgeon has removed the cancer but “there is a risk that some cancer cells have been left behind, either in that local area or have broken off and traveled to other parts of the body. To see those traveling cells is not possible with any of our imaging technologies.”

Chemotherapy is intended to eradicate all those invisible “travelers,” Bauman said.

Typically adjuvant chemotherapy is given for three to six months in cycles. A cycle might involve an infusion once every three weeks. “The patient goes through side effects, recovers, and then three weeks later we do it again. With each cycle you’re wiping out half of those travelers,” with the goal of getting them all in three to six months, Bauman said.

Based on the princess’s age, gender, and treatment, Bauman said, it’s most likely she had either colon cancer or ovarian cancer. But, she added, “there are many, many other organs and many rare cancers that this could be,” including cancer of the liver or pancreas.

The “best-case scenario” would be a colon cancer caught early, Parikh said. Ovarian and pancreatic cancers have lower survival rates.

As for whether the chemotherapy Kate is undergoing is debilitating, Parikh said the effects of chemo vary depending on the cancer being treated.

In the video, Kate displays a full head of long hair, but one can’t necessarily draw conclusions from that. The most common adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer doesn’t cause hair loss, Bauman said. The treatments for ovarian and endometrial cancers do cause hair loss, but that typically starts about three weeks after a chemo cycle and can be very gradual.

“It depends upon when her chemo started and when the video was recorded,” Bauman said.

Cancers — especially colon cancer — have been increasing in people younger than 50, including people who don’t smoke or suffer from obesity, Parikh said. Although the cause remains a mystery, doctors suspect dietary and other environmental exposures. Antibiotic use in early childhood could change the gut microbiome in ways that promote colon cancer, she said.

“As she is only 42 years old, this is another concerning example of the rising rate of cancer among adults under the age of 50,” Dr. Kimmie Ng, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, said in an emailed statement.

“A report released earlier this year by the American Cancer Society showed younger adults to be the only age group with an increase in overall cancer incidence between 1995 and 2020. There is an urgent need for research into the causes of this uptick.”

 

I'm a gynecologist and that is my impression, too.  In both cases, there are benign conditions that could require surgery and are associated with an increased risk of a cancer developing.  For example, if she had endometriosis, she would have a higher risk of ovarian cancer which could be found in the surgical specimen.  If she had ulcerative colitis and needed surgery, there is an increased risk of colon cancer which could be found in the bowel pathology.

[KnittingOwl]

14 hours ago, Loveday said:

If the King has pancreatic cancer, the odds are against him living another 2 years. The majority of people with this type of cancer live less than a year post-diagnosis. It's happened twice in my family: my uncle died less than a month after diagnosis, and my mother 9 months. My uncle died on the morning of the day he was to start treatment. 

I think Kate's cancer is reproductive. 

Kate’s cancer could also be colon. My mom had a similar hospital stay when she had a colon resection. 
 

ETA: clearly I should have kept reading. Sorry about that. From the beginning, it reminded me of a colon issue. 

Edited March 24 by KnittingOwl

[Father Son Holy Goat]

On 3/23/2024 at 12:44 PM, Loveday said:

I'm so sorry. 😢 

Thank you. My mother was the less abusive parent but still plenty abusive in her own right. Her death was a deliverance and directly lead to me going no contact with my dad. So in a way it was a blessing.