While it’s not known what kind of cancer Princess Catherine has, oncologists say what she described in her public statement released Friday — cancer discovered during another procedure, in this case a “major abdominal surgery” – it’s very common. .
“Unfortunately, so much of the cancer we diagnose is unexpected,” said Dr. Elena Ratner, a gynecologic oncologist at Yale Cancer Center, who has diagnosed many patients with ovarian, uterine, and endometrial cancers.
Without speculating about Catherine’s procedure, Dr. Ratner described situations in which women would undergo surgery for endometriosis, a condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus is found elsewhere in the abdomen. Often, Dr. Ratner says, the assumption is that endometriosis has occurred in an ovary and caused a benign ovarian cyst. But one to two weeks later, when the supposedly benign tissue was studied, pathologists report that they found cancer.
In the statement, Princess Catherine said she was receiving “a program of preventive chemotherapy”.
It is also common. In medical settings, it is usually called adjuvant chemotherapy.
Dr. Eric Wiener, director of the Yale Cancer Center, said that with adjuvant chemotherapy, “the hope is that this will prevent further problems” and prevent the cancer from coming back.
It also means that “you surgically removed everything that was visible,” said Dr. Michael Birrer, director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. “You can’t see the cancer,” he added, because tiny cancer cells can be left behind. Chemotherapy is a way of attacking microscopic diseases, he explained.
Other parts of Kathryn’s statement also struck Dr. Ratner, particularly her concern for her family.
“William and I have done our best to work it out and manage it privately for the sake of our young family,” Catherine said, and “it took us time to explain everything to George, Charlotte and Louis in a way that’s right for them and to reassure them that I’m going to be okay.”
These are sentiments Dr. Ratner hears on a regular basis and reveal, she says, “how difficult it is for women to be diagnosed with cancer.”
“I see this day in and day out,” he said. “Women always say, ‘Am I going to be there for my kids? What will happen to my children?”
“They’re not saying, ‘What’s going to happen to me?’
