King Charles cancer update: “Diagnosis can feel overwhelming” monarch says while giving update on treatment

King Charles’ cancer treatment is to be reduced in the new year, he has revealed, while urging people to take up available screenings. The King, in a video message, updated royal watchers on his health while encouraging others to get checked.

The video was in support of the Stand Up To Cancer campaign, with the monarch saying his “good news” was down to early diagnosis, successful care, and following “doctors’ orders”.

King Charles has been receiving what is believed to be weekly treatment as an outpatient since February last year at the London Clinic, but these sessions are set to be significantly reduced. The 77-year-old described how from his own experience, “a cancer diagnosis can feel overwhelming”, and paid tribute to the “community of care”, such as specialists, nurses, researchers and volunteers, surrounding every patient.

“Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives,” he said. “Now, I have heard this message repeatedly during my visits to cancer centres across the country. I know, too, what a difference it has made in my own case, enabling me to continue leading a full and active life, even while undergoing treatment.

“Indeed, today I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to ‘doctors’ orders’, my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the new year.”

The message was aired during a Channel 4 night of comedy, entertainment and awareness-raising for the Stand Up To Cancer campaign, a joint initiative between the broadcaster and Cancer Research UK, which the King supports as patron.

Sir Keir Starmer called the King’s announcement a “powerful message”, and added: “I know I speak for the entire country when I say how glad I am that his cancer treatment will be reduced in the new year. Early cancer screening saves lives.”

Charles also praised “remarkable advances” in cancer care that made his positive health update possible, despite the form of his treatment not being revealed. In recent years, developments have included immunotherapy treatment, where the patient’s immune system finds and kills cancer cells, and targeted medicines that use a tumour’s specific genetic makeup to guide treatment.

“This milestone is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years; testimony that I hope may give encouragement to the 50% of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives,” the King said, adding that there are “at least nine million opportunities for early diagnosis” being missed - the number of people who had not taken up available cancer screenings.

Charles gave the example of bowel cancer where, if caught early, nine in 10 people survive for at least five years, but if diagnosed late, that falls to one in 10.

The King’s cancer diagnosis was announced on February 6 last year and he postponed all public-facing engagements for almost three months. The previous month, Charles spent three nights in hospital for a procedure on an enlarged prostate, during which time his cancer – not prostate cancer – was discovered.

His form of cancer has not been disclosed on the advice of experts so he can engage with all cancer patients, and it is not known how long he will require treatment.