Simon Perry is a writer and correspondent at PEOPLE. He has more than 25 years' experience at PEOPLE covering the royals, human interest and celebrity.
King Charles' cancer treatment will continue into the New Year, but it is moving "in a very positive direction," palace sources have confirmed.
Aides have signaled that Charles, 76, who has been under medical care for his cancer diagnosis since early February, will continue treatment towards his one-year anniversary as a "managed condition."
As the year comes to a close and Charles prepares for Christmas with many of his family around him, palace sources confirmed on Friday, Dec. 20, "His treatment has been moving in a positive direction and as a managed condition the treatment cycle will continue into next year."
That positivity is evidenced by plans being under way for a schedule of public work similar to how he is ending 2024 -- with both trips around the U.K. and abroad pencilled into his diary.
The news was first reported by Sky News, which featured a conversation with Dame Laura Lee, chief executive of the cancer support charity Maggie's.
"It's very common for treatment to be ongoing for very long periods of time, as is the treatment that the Princess of Wales went through, which is an intense period of treatment over a year, and then it comes to a point where it's on an end, and she's on that recovery from some of the impacts of her treatment," she said.
"So we've got immunotherapy, chemotherapy, surgery, hormone therapy. There are all sorts of different treatment modalities. And so it's not surprising at all," Lee added.
Charles was first hospitalized for a planned operation to treat an enlarged prostate in January. While in the hospital an as-yet-undisclosed cancer was discovered and his treatment started on February 5. He cancelled all face-to-face engagements and only returned to his more public royal duties in April, beginning with a visit to a cancer hospital in London with his wife, Queen Camilla.
In a second cancer diagnosis for the family, Kate Middleton revealed in March that she had also been undergoing cancer treatment for around a month. In September, the Princess of Wales, 42, announced in an emotional video message that she had finished her chemotherapy treatment.
The King has ended 2024 with a fuller slate of engagements, including hosting the visit by the Amir of Qatar earlier this month. Meanwhile, on Dec. 19, he hosted his annual Christmas lunch for the extended royal family, and on Dec. 20 he was out and about in Walthamstow, east London, with Camilla, 77, to highlight social cohesion and community work in the area.
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His aides have hinted that plans are under way for foreign travel in 2025. "We're now working on a pretty normal-looking, full overseas tour program for next year," a senior palace official said at the end of Charles and Camilla's tour to Australia and Samoa in October. "Which is a high for us to end on, to know that we can be thinking in those terms, subject to signoff by doctors."