In a video message launched by Kensington Palace, Kate Middleton, 42, confirmed that she was recognized with most cancers after she underwent “main stomach surgical procedure” in January.

“On the time, it was thought that my situation was noncancerous,” the Princess of Wales defined within the video. “The surgical procedure was profitable. Nonetheless, exams after the operation discovered most cancers had been current. My medical group subsequently suggested that I ought to endure a course of preventative chemotherapy, and I’m now within the early phases of that therapy.”

Middleton referred to as the information a “enormous shock,” including that she and her husband, Prince William, have “been doing all the pieces we will to course of and handle this privately for the sake of our younger household.” She is going to proceed to be away from her royal duties as she focuses on making a full restoration.

Kensington Palace has not confirmed what sort of most cancers Middleton was recognized with or how lengthy her therapy is predicted to final. However what’s “preventative chemotherapy,” precisely? Right here’s how specialists sometimes outline it and what the method can seem like.

“Preventative chemotherapy” isn’t an official medical time period, specialists say.

It’s common for an individual to endure chemotherapy—a drug therapy used to cease or gradual the expansion of most cancers cells—after most cancers of their physique is surgically eliminated, says Anton Bilchik, MD, PhD, surgical oncologist and chief of drugs and director of the Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Program at Windfall Saint John’s Most cancers Institute.

This technique falls underneath “adjuvant remedy,” which is often used after preliminary therapies like surgical procedure to decrease the chances that most cancers will come again. Some individuals is likely to be prescribed radiation or hormone remedy as a substitute, for instance.

“Relying on the kind of most cancers, even if you take away it surgically, there could also be some rogue cells which have escaped [into the] bloodstream,” Dr. Bilchik explains. Having chemotherapy after surgical procedure can assist eradicate these cells and maintain them from forming new tumours, he explains.

The phrase “preventative chemotherapy” is a “time period of consolation,” as Dr. Bilchik places it. “There’s no medical time period that defines ‘preventive chemotherapy’.… It’s a pleasant approach of claiming to a affected person that your most cancers has been fully eliminated, we don’t assume it’s going to come back again, however to scale back the possibilities of it coming again, we’re going to provide you some chemotherapy… [and] chemotherapy is chemotherapy.”

Monica Avila, MD, MPH, an oncologist within the Gynecologic Oncology Program at Moffitt Most cancers Centre, says pondering of this as a “preventative” technique is a bit “deceptive,” and stresses that Middleton is having precise most cancers therapy. “There isn’t any ‘chemo gentle’ or a half-version to have the ability to deal with one thing earlier,” she says.

Is that this most cancers therapy method sometimes profitable?

It is dependent upon an entire bunch of things, together with the place the most cancers was initially detected within the physique, the stage the illness is in, and whether or not it has unfold to different organs—once more, Kate Middleton didn’t affirm these particulars in her announcement, so it’s unclear the place her well being stands proper now.

After post-surgical chemotherapy is given, Dr. Avila says sufferers are adopted very carefully. “We wish to be sure that we’re catching any kind of recurrence early,” she says.

With some types of the illness, like colorectal most cancers for instance, there’s a “superb likelihood of it not coming again, with or with out chemotherapy” as soon as the most cancers is surgically eliminated—offered it’s caught early, Dr. Bilchik says.

“All of it comes right down to specifics,” he provides. “Every organ throughout the stomach is completely different and every most cancers is completely different.”

This text initially appeared on Self.