Patients are admitted to the hospital for routine procedures to treat an enlarged prostate. And then, unexpectedly, tests done at the hospital – perhaps blood tests, X-rays, or an examination of the urethra and bladder – discover cancer.
Apparently, something like that happened to King Charles III. Doctors discovered cancer when the British monarch was undergoing treatment for an enlarged prostate in January, but the palace said it was not prostate cancer. Charles started treatment on Monday. The palace has not disclosed the circumstances that led to the king's diagnosis.
Some prostate experts, like Dr. Peter Albertsen of the University of Connecticut, called such a situation “pretty rare,” while other doctors said it wasn't unheard of.
Dr. Otis Brawley, an oncologist at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, said the man came in for routine prostate monitoring to watch for low-risk cancers. One of Dr. Brawley's residents ordered a chest X-ray “for no reason,” he said. But to the surprise of Dr. Brawley, the X-ray detected a lung cancer.
“There are also some leukemias and lymphomas, and we want to start treatment within 24 hours of suspicion,” he said. He said he suspected Charles had acute myeloid leukemia or Burkett's lymphoma, one of the most aggressive blood cancers. But even if they did, treatment would not be postponed.
It is unclear whether Wang's cancer was discovered as doctors prepared him for surgery. Doctors also may detect another kind of cancer when passing a scope through a patient's urethra during treatment of an enlarged prostate.
Dr. Benjamin Breyer, a urologist at the University of California, San Francisco, points out that if cancer were discovered by chance in a man's prostate and it turned out that he was not born there, it could be a dire situation. did.
“By definition, this is metastasis,” Dr. Breyer says. Cancers that can spread to the prostate include melanoma, he said. A type of bladder cancer known as urothelial carcinoma can also start in the prostate.
Dr. Scott Edgner, a urological oncologist at the University of Chicago, says this type of bladder cancer is most likely to be seen as part of treatment for an enlarged prostate. . He explained that the lining of the bladder had become cancerous and had spread through the ureters. Cancer is discovered during prostate treatment when the prostate is removed from the inside.
According to Dr. Judd Mohr, a urological oncologist at Duke University, there are two types of bladder cancer. One is that it's a “rather annoying situation.” The cancer is surgically removed, and drugs are injected into the bladder periodically to treat any remaining cells.
The other type, called muscle invasive, is more serious. Treatment is complete removal of the bladder.
However, the cancer most often discovered during treatment for enlarged prostates is prostate cancer. Dr. Breyer estimated that it occurs about 5 percent to 10 percent of the time, but one study reported that prostate cancer was found 26 percent of the time when an enlarged prostate was treated.
Breier and his colleagues say there is too little information about King Charles to speculate on what type of cancer he has or how it was discovered.
