After Johnson announced that Elizabeth II had been diagnosed with bone cancer before her death… What do you know about this disease?

In an extract from his memoirs, Unleashed, Mr Johnson recalled his last meeting with the Queen, noting that he had been aware of her condition for more than a year.

“I had known for a year or so that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were concerned that she might go into a severe decline at any time,” he wrote. She appeared paler and more stooped, and had dark bruises on her hands and wrists, perhaps from instillation (continuous introduction of fluid into the body through a needle into a blood vessel) or injection.”

However, despite her condition, the former Prime Minister recalled how sharp her mind was at that last meeting.

The late Queen died at the age of 96 on September 8, 2022. Members of the royal family never confirmed a diagnosis that the late Queen suffered from, and “old age” was documented as the cause of death, according to her death certificate.

However, death in older years is usually due to another condition that worsens with age, perhaps because treatment is less effective.

Bone cancer is a rare form of the disease, accounting for less than 1% of all cancer cases diagnosed each year, with only about 600 cases in the UK.

The disease develops when cells in or near bones develop a change in their DNA, causing them to divide and multiply very quickly.

Age is the biggest risk factor for the disease, with patients most likely to be diagnosed in their late 80s.

Bone cancer is incredibly deadly, with only about 50% of patients expected to live for five years after being diagnosed.

Bone cancer can develop in any bone in the body, but it is most often found in the long bones of the arms and legs.

Symptoms of bone cancer include persistent bone pain that gets worse over time and continues into the night, swelling and redness over the bones, weak bones that break more easily, and problems with movement.

Treatment, like most types of cancer, depends on the stage at which the cancer was discovered as well as the patient’s general health. Surgery to remove the cancerous bone and replace it with an artificial substitute is sometimes possible, although amputation may be necessary.

This can also be combined with cancer treatments such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy to directly target the tumor.

This is not the first time that Johnson has indicated that Queen Elizabeth II suffered from cancer at the end of her life.

Giles Brandreth, a friend of Prince Philip who wrote the biography “Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait,” previously told the Daily Mail that the late queen was suffering from a type of bone marrow cancer.

“I have heard that the Queen is suffering from a form of multiple myeloma – cancer of the bone marrow – which explains her fatigue, weight loss and those mobility problems that we have been told so much about during the last year or so of her life,” he wrote.