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Kate Middleton cancer diagnosis likely 'early stage'
Dr. Greg Marchand broke down what he knows about cancer diagnoses following Kate Middleton's shocking announcement.
WASHINGTON - Kate Middleton, princess of Wales, announced on Friday that she has been diagnosed with cancer.
In the video, she said she is in the early stages of cancer and is undergoing preventative chemotherapy.
"It has been an incredibly tough couple of months for our entire family, but I’ve had a fantastic medical team who have taken great care of me, for which I am so grateful," she said in a video released by the Palace.
What kind of cancer does Kate Middleton have?
Dr. Greg Marchand, an OBGYN and advisory board member for the American College of Surgeons, says "it's difficult to speculate" what kind of cancer Kate Middleton has been diagnosed with, but it's likely Stage 1.
"Cancer is going to be staged usually into four stages, and the first stage is going to be when the cancer hasn't really moved anywhere, it hasn't invaded any other organ systems," said Marchand on FOX 5's Live Zone. "Most cancers that are caught early and can be treated with medical and surgical means have very good outcomes."
The announcement Friday comes after Kate Middleton underwent a planned "abdominal surgery" in January, and spent nearly two weeks in the hospital following the surgery.
Marchand says that she likely "went into the surgery knowing that they were going to be removing some sort of mass that had a potential of being cancer" – but two weeks in the hospital is "definitely not standard."
"There really isn't an abdominal procedure that's going to take two weeks of recovery unless there are some complications," said Marchand. "It was very puzzling that she said that before the surgery, and now we have the diagnosis that it was in fact for cancer. So that really does bring things together and make a lot more sense."
Has Kate Middleton undergone preventative chemotherapy?
Kate Middleton "does have the appearance of someone that's gone through abdominal surgery," according to Marchand – but it's unclear whether she's started chemotherapy.
"That's tougher to see and those symptoms of having had chemotherapy are a little bit easier to hide than the symptoms you have when you've undergone a major abdominal surgery," said Marchand.
Kate said in the video she's doing "well" and focused on her recovery.