Catherine, Princess of Wales
This is behind their “preventive chemotherapy”
Catherine, Princess of Wales
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Catherine, Princess of Wales, has cancer and is in the early stages of “preventative chemotherapy”. GALA has summarized for you what exactly this means.
In January 2024, after her “major abdominal surgery”, it was first said that Catherine, Princess of Wales, 42, is not suffering from cancer. Then the shock: On March 22nd, Prince William’s wife, 41, published a video message in which she had to announce that cancer had been discovered during the “examinations after the operation”. Her medical team advised Kate to undergo “preventative chemotherapy,” which she is now in the initial phase of. GALA has summarized for you what is meant by the treatment and what could now happen to the Princess of Wales.
1. What Catherine, Princess of Wales, really means by the term “preventive chemotherapy”.
It is not known what type of cancer Catherine, Princess of Wales is suffering from and what stage the disease is in. The mother of three only reveals that she would undergo “preventative chemotherapy.” “It’s not a medical term,” emphasizes Dr. Katherine Van Loon, professor of medicine and gastrointestinal oncologist at the University of California, told Time Magazine. Rather, doctors assume that Kate is “referring to adjuvant chemotherapy”.
2. What does Kate’s treatment do?
In oncology, adjuvant therapy refers to treatment measures that follow the complete surgical removal of a malignant tumor [bösartigen] tumor,” explain the doctors Dr. Frank Antwerpes and Dr. Ibrahim Güler on the “DocCheck Flexikon” platform.
The aim is to kill any remaining microscopic cancer cells that the surgeon could not see or that have escaped and spread to other parts of the body, says Dr. Katherine Van Loon in conversation with Time Magazine.
3. When is adjuvant chemotherapy used?
If “the risk of relapse is high”, i.e. the risk that the cancer could return after surgery, adjuvant chemotherapy is prescribed, explains cancer specialist and consultant oncologist Dr. Karol Sikora in conversation with Sky News.
The main criterion for carrying out such additional therapy, according to Dr. Jeremy Jones, interim chairman of the division of hematology and oncology at the US Mayo Clinic, the stage of the cancer. “Adjuvant chemotherapy is therefore usually recommended for later-stage cancers that have a higher risk of recurrence,” the expert explains to “Time” magazine.
4. What medication does Kate need to take?
According to gastrointestinal oncologist Dr. Katherine Van Loon usually used the same chemotherapy drugs that are used to treat active or advanced cancer, reports Time magazine.
Depending on the type of cancer, these are drugs “that reach all organs of the body where it could have spread,” explains Dr. Mangesh Thorat, professor and consultant breast surgeon at Homerton University Hospital, told Sky News. Chemotherapy drugs have a “particular effect on rapidly dividing cells” such as cancer cells and kill them.
5. How are the medications given to Kate?
In most cases, chemotherapy drugs are given via an infusion in a hospital or oncology outpatient clinic over a period of a few hours. Patients often receive a port catheter, i.e. an access point under the skin surface for infusions that can be used over a longer period of time.
6. How long does adjuvant chemotherapy take?
Oncology specialist Dr. In an interview with Time, Jeremy Jones describes adjuvant chemotherapy as a “standard procedure to reduce the risk of recurrence in many types of cancer.” How long a treatment period lasts depends on the type of cancer and its stage. However, studies have shown “that three to six months of chemotherapy after surgery can significantly reduce the risk of the cancer coming back.”
Sources used: twitter.com, time.com, flexikon.doccheck.com, news.sky.com