King Charles III said on Friday that his doctors planned to scale back his treatment for cancer starting next year, the first genuine ray of hope for the British monarch’s health since he announced he had been diagnosed in early 2024.
In a prerecorded video broadcast as part of a cancer awareness program, Charles said, “Today I am able to share with you the good news that thanks to early diagnosis, effective intervention and ‘doctors’ orders,’ my own schedule of cancer treatment can be reduced in the New Year.”
“This milestone,” he added, “is both a personal blessing and a testimony to the remarkable advances that have been made in cancer care in recent years.”
The king, 77, did not say he was medically free of cancer or that the treatments would end altogether. Nor did he disclose what type of cancer he had. But his remarks suggested that his doctors were effectively managing the disease.
That offers a modicum of relief to the British royal family, which has been shadowed by the illnesses of Charles and Catherine, the Princess of Wales, who was also diagnosed with cancer in 2024. She announced in January that she was in remission, after completing chemotherapy the previous September.
Charles made his announcement in support of a campaign to promote cancer research and the early detection of cancer through screening programs. The king, whose cancer was detected during surgery for an enlarged prostate in early 2024, said the early diagnosis helped with his treatment of the disease.
“Too often, I am told, people avoid screening because they imagine it may be frightening, embarrassing or uncomfortable,” Charles said. “If and when they finally do take up their invitation, they are glad they took part.”
Buckingham Palace said the king had responded “exceptionally well to treatment,” and that his medical team concluded his treatment would now move into a “precautionary phase,” with a significantly reduced schedule. They declined to characterize the nature of the treatment or how long it might continue.
For Charles, the video message was a vivid example of how he has chosen to communicate about his illness, a mixture of stubborn privacy and sporadic disclosure that is nonetheless unusual for the normally opaque royal family.
When the king’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, died in September 2022 at the age of 96, her death certificate listed the cause as “old age.” Boris Johnson, who served as prime minister until shortly before she died, wrote in his memoir, “Unleashed,” that the queen had suffered from a form of bone cancer for more than a year — a claim never confirmed by Buckingham Palace.
Charles said he decided to make his diagnosis public in February 2024 “to prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer.”
But the king has said very little about it since then. His doctors have never spoken about his prognosis, and little is known about his treatment, beyond that he receives it on a weekly basis. Last March, he was hospitalized briefly because of side effects from the treatment, prompting a surge of anxiety about his condition.
For all his reticence, Charles has tried to use his illness to educate people about the best ways to treat cancer. In the video, he urged people to take advantage of opportunities to be screened for breast, cervical and bowel cancer.
“To take just one example,” Charles said, “when bowel cancer is caught at its earliest stage, around nine in 10 people survive it for at least five years. When diagnosed late, that falls to just one in 10.”
The king’s video message kicked off an evening of programming on Britain’s Channel 4 network, a sponsor of a fund-raising campaign, Stand Up to Cancer 2025. Channel 4 also carried a live broadcast from a cancer clinic at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Among the producers is Hidden Light, a production company founded by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state.
“My hope is that it will literally help save lives,” Mrs. Clinton said of the live broadcast in a post on Instagram.
Unlike Catherine, who documented the end of her chemotherapy with a highly personal home-movie-style video with her husband, Prince William, and their three children, Charles has kept his messages low-key. He recorded this latest one last month in Clarence House, his London residence, sitting in a chair, wearing a dark, pinstriped suit and lavender tie.
Charles has kept up a hectic schedule of public appearances and foreign travel during his illness, which royal watchers have interpreted either as proof that he is on the mend or evidence of a monarch determined to do all he can in the time he has left.
In October, he prayed with Pope Leo XIV in an ecumenical service in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the first time in hundreds of years that a pontiff and a British monarch, the nominal head of the Church of England, had publicly prayed together. Months earlier, he visited Pope Francis, just before his death.
Last week, he welcomed Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president of Germany, for a two-day state visit. He hosted President Trump in September, President Emmanuel Macron of France in July, and Emperor Naruhito of Japan in June. And he met twice with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, the first time in the immediate aftermath of Mr. Zelensky’s bitter clash with Mr. Trump in the Oval Office.
While Charles has preserved the monarch’s customary role above politics, he has sent some not-so-subtle signals in his diplomacy. The king presided over the ceremonial opening of the Parliament in Canada, of which he is head of state, at a time when Mr. Trump was calling for it to become the 51st American state.
But Charles has also spoken wistfully about the time he has left on the throne. And other family members have contributed to worries about his prognosis. His younger son, Prince Harry, after tensions with Buckingham Palace over his security in Britain, told the BBC, “I don’t know how much longer my father has.”
Francesca Regalado contributed reporting
Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
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