{"id":75813,"date":"2024-03-27T00:38:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T00:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/princess-catherine-cancer-diagnosis-what-is-preventative-chemotherapy\/"},"modified":"2024-03-27T00:38:55","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T00:38:55","slug":"princess-catherine-cancer-diagnosis-what-is-preventative-chemotherapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/princess-catherine-cancer-diagnosis-what-is-preventative-chemotherapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Catherine cancer diagnosis: What is preventative chemotherapy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Catherine, Princess of Wales, announced on Friday that she is undergoing preventative chemotherapy to treat cancer discovered after she had abdominal surgery.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Watch ARY News live on\u00a0live.arynews.tv<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

While the exact situation is difficult to determine because the 42-year-old princess did not disclose the nature of the cancer, here is an explanation of preventative chemo.<\/p>\n

Chemotherapy is the use of powerful drugs to stop cancerous cells from growing, dividing and creating more cells. There are a large number of kinds of chemotherapy, depending on the cancer, how far it has spread and the treatment regime. Because these treatments cannot distinguish between different cells, they end up killing some cells that do good, such as white blood cells, causing some side effects.<\/p>\n

Why preventative?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Preventative chemotherapy is often used after surgery to \u2018decrease the likelihood\u2019 that cancer will return, Kimmie Ng, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the United States told AFP. Even after successful surgery, \u2018microscopic cancer cells can remain lurking in the body and can\u2019t be detected by current tests\u2019, said Lawrence Young, molecular oncology professor at the University of Warwick.<\/p>\n

It is \u2018a bit like mopping a floor with bleach when you\u2019ve spilt something on it\u2019, Andrew Beggs, a cancer surgeon at the University of Birmingham, told the Science Media Centre.<\/p>\n

Side effects and duration?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

How chemo affects people can vary depending on the particular cancer, treatment and person. But common side effects include fatigue, nausea, diarrhoea, loss of appetite and an increased risk of getting an infection. Some rarer, more severe side effects can include sepsis and damage to vital organs.<\/p>\n

Treatment schedules again can vary widely, but a traditional chemo regime would be delivered in four to six blocks, said Bob Phillips, paediatric oncology professor at the University of York. A cycle may last 21 days and \u2018consists of a day or few days of chemo, then time for the body to recover from it\u2019, Phillips said, Regimes of preventative chemo tend to last between three to six months. It can take people weeks or months to recover from the treatment.<\/p>\n

More cancer among young people?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Beggs emphasised that \u2018young onset cancer is by no means rare\u2019. \u201cI run a clinic for early-onset cancer in adults and we are seeing more and more people in their 40s with cancer,\u201d he said. Shivan Sivakumar, an oncology expert at the University of Birmingham said \u2018there is an epidemic currently\u2019 of people under 50 getting cancer. \u201cIt is unknown the cause of this, but we are seeing more patients getting abdominal cancers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ng pointed out that research from the American Cancer Society released this year showed that younger adults were the only age group in which cancer increased between 1995 and 2020. \u201cThere is an urgent need for research into the causes of this uptick,\u201d Ng said.<\/p>\n

Research published in the BMJ journal last week said that cancer cases among people aged 35-69 in Britain also rose over the last quarter of a century. But deaths from cancer fell by a significant margin. \u201cThe younger you are, the more likely you are to tolerate chemotherapy well,\u201d Sivakumar said.<\/p>\n

Younger people are also more likely to survive cancer. A combination of early diagnosis and better treatments has led to \u2018survival rates doubling in the last 50 years\u2019, Young said. \u201cAn incidental finding of cancer during surgery for other conditions is often associated with the tumour being detected at an early stage when subsequent chemotherapy is much more effective,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Check yourself?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said that such high-profile cancers can serve as a reminder for people to think about their own health. \u201cIf people spot something that\u2019s not normal for them or isn\u2019t going away, they should check with their GP,\u201d she said. \u201cIt probably won\u2019t be cancer. But if it is, spotting it at an early stage means treatment is more likely to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Princess Catherine of Wales says she has cancer<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n