King Charles Cancer!! The palace said on Monday that King Charles III has cancer. They found out when he had a surgery for his prostate. His prostate was too big and it made it hard for him to pee. They did not say what kind of cancer he has or how bad it is.
They said he does not have prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is when the prostate cells grow too much and become harmful. Many old men have big prostates, but it does not mean they have cancer. Charles is 75 years old.
Sometimes, when the prostate is too big, it can cause problems like peeing a lot at night, or not being able to control the pee. Then, doctors may suggest a surgery to cut off some of the prostate.
In the surgery, they put a tube with a camera inside the pee hole. This way, they can see the prostate and know where to cut. The tube can also see if there is cancer in other places near the prostate, like the bladder or the pee hole.
Dr. Oh, who works for a cancer organization, said: “They cut some of the prostate so you can pee better, because the prostate can block the pee when it is too big.”
Dr. Pavlovich, who teaches at a medical school, said: “Sometimes, they can find a tumor in the bladder or something else that is not causing any pain, and they can see it when they go inside.”
Dr. Friedlander, who is also a teacher at a medical school, said: “The tube can also see if the pee is bloody, which means something is bleeding in the kidney.” That could be a sign of kidney cancer or cancer in the tube that carries the pee from the kidney to the bladder.
Sometimes, when they look at the prostate tissue that they cut off, they can find cancer that came from other parts of the body.
Dr. Pavlovich said: “The prostate can have cancers that are not from the prostate, like a lymphoma, which is a blood cancer, or a cancer of the urothelium, which is the lining of the pee hole and bladder.”
Dr. Friedlander said: “That means the cancer has spread from other organs and it is more serious.”
Dr. Pow-Sang, who leads a cancer program at a hospital in Florida, said: “It is not common to find cancer when they do a surgery for a big prostate.”
He said: “Most of the time, it is not cancer, but sometimes it can be a surprise.”
The palace did not say what kind of surgery Charles had for his prostate, but they said before that it was to fix it.
Sometimes, instead of cutting the prostate, doctors can use a laser or heat to make it smaller, but those are not done very often.
The palace said that Charles came to London on Monday to start getting treatment for his cancer.
They said: “The King is thankful to his doctors for their good care and quick action. He is very hopeful about his treatment and he wants to go back to work as soon as he can.”
