PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni announced Friday that he has prostate cancer and will seek treatment in China, where he was diagnosed with the disease.
In a statement posted on its Facebook account by Cambodia’s state news agency AKP, the 72-year-old constitutional monarch said he was diagnosed with cancer during a medical examination at a state hospital in Beijing. He and his mother, Queen Mother Norodom Monyneth, went there in late February for their routine checkup.
Sihamoni’s message did not indicate how serious his condition was. Prostate cancer is usually curable if detected in its early stages. According to the American Cancer Society, one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
Sihamoni’s father, King Norodom Sihanouk, who also received Chinese medical care, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early 1993, but lived until 2012, when he died in Beijing at the age of 89.
Sihamoni assumed the throne in October 2004, a week after his father’s abdication. Sihamoni’s role is largely ceremonial and he keeps a low public profile.
Before becoming king, he served as the Cambodian ambassador to the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO, and was known as a classical ballet dancer. He is unmarried and has no children.
