King Charles: I'm Beating Cancer

King shares "good news" that his cancer treatment schedule can be "reduced" but stops short of declaring himself cancer free.

King Charles has announced the “good news” that his cancer treatment regimen is to be reduced in 2026 during a historic TV address which also stressed the importance of early diagnosis.

In the video statement, the King said his treatment schedule, which has been weekly, can be reduced in the new year “thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and adherence to doctors’ orders.”

The king described the “milestone” as a “personal blessing” in a televised message for the U.K. charity, Stand Up to Cancer.

The king called for more screening, saying, “Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.”

The announcement was the first unambiguous sign from the king that he believes he has many years left to live.

While Charles has resisted identifying which form of cancer he has, he is understood to have been having weekly radiotherapy since the cancer was discovered after he underwent a medical procedure for benign prostate enlargement (BPE) in late January 2024.

Charles announced he was having the BPE treatment before he went in, but sources have told The Royalist that some of his advisors subsequently came to regret he did this as he was then effectively bounced into announcing cancer had been found.

However, on February 5, 2024, Buckingham Palace publicly announced that Charles had been diagnosed with cancer. The palace did not specify the type of cancer but said it was not prostate cancer. The King thought that, by speaking in general terms, he would be better able to support the “whole cancer community”.

On February 10, 2024, Charles issued his first public statement thanking people for their support and well-wishes after the announcement of his cancer diagnosis.

On February 18 and February 21, 2024, he attended church with Queen Camilla and held his first in-person audience with the then-UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as part of a drive to emphasize he intended to “keep calm and carry on.”

On March 27, 2025, Charles was briefly hospitalized due to temporary side effects from his ongoing cancer treatment, with a short observational stay before returning to Clarence House; he appeared in public again the next day and his aides insisted it was only a minor blip.

He has continued his treatment while maintaining many of his official responsibilities.

He said: “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 King added: “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 per cent of us who will be diagnosed with the illness at some point in our lives.”

He added: “I know from my own experience that a cancer diagnosis can feel overwhelming.

“Yet I also know that early detection is the key that can transform treatment journeys, giving invaluable time to medical teams – and, to their patients, the precious gift of hope.”

Saying he had been profoundly moved by the “community of care” for cancer patients, the King disclosed he had also “learned something that troubles me deeply”; that “at least nine million people in our country are not up to date with the cancer screenings available to them.”

“The statistics speak with stark clarity,” he said. “To take just one example: When bowel cancer is caught at the earliest stage, around nine in 10 people survive for at least five years. When diagnosed late, that falls to just one in 10.”

“Early diagnosis quite simply saves lives.”

A spokesman for the King said that “ongoing measures will now move into a precautionary phase.”