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King Pushed for Transparency on Diagnosis. He Raised Questions in the Process.

When Buckingham Palace announced on Monday that King Charles III had been diagnosed with cancer and would halt his public engagements to undergo treatment, it predictably set off a storm of questions.

What kind of cancer? How advanced? What form of treatment? How long would he be sidelined? And the essential, if often unspoken, question when a patient faces a potentially existential health threat: Would he survive?

The palace, paradoxically, fueled this frenzy by disclosing more about the king’s medical condition than it had for Queen Elizabeth II or any other previous British monarch. It said it did so at the behest of Charles himself, who wanted to “share his diagnosis to prevent speculation and in the hope it may assist public understanding for all those around the world who are affected by cancer.”

As well-intentioned as the king might have been, the palace’s decision to disclose some facts but not others — the medical equivalent of parting the curtain halfway — raised many more questions than it answered.

Britain now finds itself in an anguished middle ground, aware that its 75-year-old king has a life-threatening disease but unsure exactly what that means. With treatment, could he live for many more years, as cancer survivors of his age often do? Or should Britons gird themselves for the passing of another sovereign?

That groping for signposts in a fogbound landscape was on display in remarks by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Tuesday morning. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Mr. Sunak said he was “shocked and sad” to hear the news about Charles. But then he added, “Thankfully, this has been caught early.”

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