Doctor shares biggest takeaway from Kate’s cancer diagnosis

CNN's Max Foster is live outside Buckingham Palace for us right now. Max, what else have you heard in the palace tonight about Princess Catherine's condition? Not to mention the timing of this announcement. So they are not going to tell us exactly what type of

cancer

it is or when. She referred to it as being about the children. She revealed today that she underwent major abdominal surgery, not just abdominal surgery. So she had to recover from that. Then the news that the tests from that surgery showed she had

cancer

. They needed to decompress that as a family.

The children have been in school until today. They have been trying. They didn't want the kids to have a lot of news coverage while they were at school with all the other kids talking to their kids. So they wanted to wait until they got out of school, which happened today. So they picked them up today and they won't have the TV on tonight. It's a bit about trying to make sense of what happened. Start treatment. They told me he started chemotherapy at the end of February. And then trying to manage this for the kids as much as anything else.

Once William and Kate can make sense of it and then present it to the children and then try to protect them as much as possible from all this online speculation, which has been really detrimental to the family, as I understand it. But they were particularly worried about children finding out that way. And now we know why they didn't tell us what the problem was and what he was suffering from in the hospital. Max. Princess Catherine will now undergo chemotherapy at the same time as her father-in-law, King Charles. We don't know what type of cancer any of them have.

What kind of impact will this have on the monarchy? A huge impact. There are four high-ranking royals, the king, queen, prince and princess. The king is out of public action. He is carrying out tasks behind the scenes. Of course, now we are seeing some images of him. The princess will be out of action indefinitely until

doctor

s allow her to return to her daily schedule. We don't know when that will be. We just know that she is in the early stages of treatment and that she won't feel comfortable leaving for some time. The priority for her is to ensure that her children have as much normality as possible.

That is why we have all been asked not to share any images of them outside the home. They are being very clear. She's going to the hospital. They will be away from home. They don't want people to share those images, that's why they have been transparent, as transparent as they have been with us today. But basically you have the queen at the top falling. In leading the charge, William will do what he can, but it's pretty clear that he's also prioritizing his distant family. Max Foster outside Buckingham Palace, thank you very much. Let's bring on Julia Chatterley and Julia from CNN.

Princess Catherine's last public appearance occurred at Christmas. That was before she underwent this major abdominal surgery in January. Can you walk us through how this has all played out over the past few weeks? Hey, Josh, I can. Jake. Sorry, I can. Christmas, Christmas day. The British always look at them at church service. We saw her looking healthy, vibrant, not bad at all. Then we didn't see her for three weeks. Unusual. But nothing to cause alarm. Then, in fact, she arrives on January 17 and we get a statement from Kensington Palace. A statement on social media said she had returned to the hospital for planned abdominal surgery.

That the procedure was successful. But Kate would be in the hospital for two weeks, and it was those two weeks that, I think, set off alarm bells and started the wild speculation that we've been talking about for weeks about what was wrong with Kate and what she might be. passing January 29, the next important date. She was discharged from the hospital, but we didn't see her. She managed to avoid the press and cameras at the time. Then on March 4th we saw her in a car with her mother. But again, there was concern that maybe this wasn't just more speculation about what was going on.

Then a short period until March 10, when Kensington Palace released the Mother's Day photo. Mother's Day in the UK, March 10 for her and her three children. But within hours, there was an issue with the death notice over concerns that it had been heavily manipulated. The next day, a personal message arrived from Princess Kate herself saying, look, she's an amateur photographer, who retouched that photo and apologized. Strange, again, raises more concerns and conspiracy theories. Then last weekend, the media shared a video of what was and appeared to be Kate and William. Kate looks very healthy, vibrant and lively, walking around a local farm near where they live.

So, again, that perhaps should have addressed some of the concerns about her health and her situation. It was not so. Fast forward to today and now all that wild speculation has resulted in what we hear today, of course, and that is a sad cancer

diagnosis

. Julia, what do you think about how Princess Catherine decided to make this video announcement on her own with this message of personal and emotional understanding? I think she showed great strength. I think she could have rightly sat there with her husband, with Prince William, giving her support. She decided not to do that.

I think you could hear the excitement in her voice. She managed to be and I already said it, at the same time majestic but also vulnerable in the message she shared. And I think anyone whose life has been affected by cancer, she understands the challenge that she faces, the challenge of telling children, of trying to protect them. And I think even in this statement, she showed that she is a princess through and through by caring more about other people who are also suffering from this, instead of maybe just focusing on herself, on her own family's situation.

Very touching, Jake, I would say. Very good, Julian, overall, thank you very much. Join us now to discuss the medical aspect of this. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, what is your

biggest

takeaway

from what we heard today from Princess Catherine? I think the most important thing, obviously, is the headline that she has cancer. But, you know, we don't know what type of cancer, as you may have heard, we don't know the stage of the cancer. So there is an important fact. But there are also many things we don't know. We had a better idea of ​​the timeline.

And you were talking a little bit about this with Julia, but let me bring this up again, Jake. Just so you know, from a medical standpoint, it sounds like there was concern from the beginning. We are hearing what we are hearing today. But even from the beginning, they said, look, she's going to have a long recovery. Even when they were admitted to the hospital, they said they would spend at least two weeks in the hospital, which is a long time. And then we know that about a month after she was discharged from the hospitals, when she started what they call preventive chemotherapy, that's what we said in the statement.

It is more of an adjuvant chemotherapy. This idea that the operation was performed. Now we know it is cancer. We have to assume that there are still some cancer cells left. So we are giving him chemotherapy. Jake, we still don't know what it is. We don't know what stage it is at, but it seems like it's obviously something they're being aggressive about and have been worried about for some time. Jake. How does a cancer

diagnosis

work in this situation? I mean, we know that she had abdominal surgery, major abdominal surgery, and two surgeons took samples for further testing.

Yeah, I think I think that's exactly right. And again, that's the part when you ask me what stands out the most. This is the part that doesn't quite add up because, since mid-January, there was obviously significant concern. You wouldn't just do some sort of exploratory surgery looking for cancer. I think there was a major concern. It seems that it was later confirmed that it was cancer. They weren't sure, maybe initially, but it was confirmed by looking at those samples. This is, let's say, Jake, under the microscope after the operation and performed. And then it could be some time before you actually start chemotherapy, without allowing someone to recover from, say, the operation.

That was about a month between the time she was discharged and the start of therapy. And she is a Princess Catherine. She is 42 years old. She has had three children. How prevalent are cancer diagnoses in women her age? They are more common in women of their age than in men. Her age, but much less common than in older women. One type of cancer that we have heard a lot more about occurring in younger people is colorectal cancer. So much so, Jake. And you probably know this, but the standard screening age that was recommended for a long time was 50, but organizations came out and said it should probably be 45 because we're seeing more and more of these cancers in younger people. , and that's men, men or women alike, Jake.

And again, we don't know. I just want to be clear. We don't know what type of cancer this is, but there are certain cancers that we normally thought occurred in older people that are now occurring in younger people over the past few decades.