King Charles Comments on ‘Encouraging’ News in Cancer Treatment Following His Own Diagnosis

King Charles shared a hopeful word about new advances in cancer treatment amid his own cancer diagnosis during his royal tour of Australia and Samoa. 

On Oct. 22, the King, 75, offered the comment during his visit to the Melanoma Institute Australia in Sydney. The outing came on the fifth day of his historic tour with Queen Camilla, and was one of several stops he made solo.

The Melanoma Institute Australia is the world’s largest melanoma research and treatment facility, and the sovereign met Australian of the Year Award winners Professor Georgina Long and Professor Richard Scolyer to hear more about their work in melanoma treatment. Australia has the world’s highest rates of melanoma, and it is the country’s third most common cancer.

According to ITV, Long told the King that they are improving treating the side effects of immunotherapy.

“When we stimulate the immune system, it can get confused and can start attacking normal tissue. And there are side effects that we become expert at managing,” Long said. 

“Oh! You do? That’s very encouraging,” the King replied, according to the outlet.

Immunotherapy is a cancer treatment which uses the immune system to find and destroy cancer cells, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and differs from chemotherapy, which uses drugs to kill cancer cells and prevent tumor growth.

Long and Scolyer’s work is personal, because it has helped Scolyer himself. In June 2023, after he was diagnosed with incurable grade 4 brain cancer 2023, she developed a series of pioneering treatments inspired by melanoma breakthroughs. Scoyler later became the world’s first brain cancer patient to receive pre-surgery combination immunotherapy, “an experimental treatment hoping to advance the understanding of brain cancer,” the Australian of the Year Awards said.

While visiting the Melanoma Institute Australia, the King also met Adam Brown, who is a patient of Long’s, to hear about his cancer treatment experience. The sovereign was shown one of Brown’s scans, and Long, who won the Australian of the Year Award with Scoyler for their strides to save lives from skin cancer, explained the steps of treatment following a melanoma diagnosis. 

King Charles asked Brown, “The treatment isn’t too bad, the immunotherapy?” and the patient said he’d had “minimal side effects,” ITV reported. 

“Fantastic. Brilliant. I’m so glad,” King Charles said.

In February, Buckingham Palace announced that the King was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer and began treatment. The news came after the palace announced the King was treated for a benign enlarged prostate in January. A spokesman clarified that he does not have prostate cancer. 

The sovereign postponed public-facing work for three months on medical advice, and resumed forward-facing engagements on April 30. 

Buckingham Palace said in April that the King’s treatment was ongoing, and the sovereign has occasionally spoken about his own health at royal outings since.

Can’t get enough of PEOPLE’s Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and more!

“It’s always a bit of shock when they tell you,” he told a cancer patient at the Macmillan Cancer Centre at the University College Hospital London on April 30, according to Rebecca English of the Daily Mail. The center is not directly involved in his care, and the King made the statement at his first outing since resuming forward-facing duties. 

Before the royal tour of Australia and Samoa, it was reported that King Charles would “pause” his ongoing treatment, thought to be weekly, during the nine-day, long-distance trip. He is reported to be traveling with two doctors and won’t be stopping in New Zealand, a nearby Commonwealth realm, on medical advice.

After the King’s poignant visit to the Melanoma Institute Australia, he and Queen Camilla stepped out in Samoa on Oct. 23 to continue the second leg of the tour. The Australia visit was significant, as it marked the first to a Commonwealth realm since the King’s accession in September 2022.

They continued to Samoa for the biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), which will be the King’s first time attending the summit as the Head of the Commonwealth. The voluntary association of 56 nations is closely linked to the British crown.