PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – In a public announcement made Friday, 72-year-old Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni confirmed that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer during a recent medical visit and will receive all required treatment for the condition in China, where the diagnosis was first confirmed.
The monarch’s statement, published to his official Facebook page and distributed nationwide by Cambodia’s state-run news agency AKP, notes that the cancer was detected during a scheduled health screening at a public Beijing hospital. Sihamoni and his 86-year-old mother, Queen Mother Norodom Monineath, traveled to the Chinese capital at the end of February for their annual routine health check-ups, a long-standing practice for the royal family.
Notably, the king’s official message did not disclose details about the stage of his cancer or the specific treatment plan he will follow. Medical consensus shows that prostate cancer has a high survival rate when caught in early stages, with the American Cancer Society estimating that roughly one out of every eight men globally will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis at some point in their lifetimes.
This diagnosis carries personal historical context for the Cambodian royal family: Sihamoni’s father, former King Norodom Sihanouk, was also diagnosed with prostate cancer back in 1993, and similarly traveled to China for ongoing medical care. Sihanouk ultimately lived to 89 years old, passing away in Beijing in 2012, nearly 20 years after his initial diagnosis.
Sihamoni ascended to Cambodia’s constitutional throne in October 2004, just one week after his father’s voluntary abdication. As a constitutional monarch, his role is almost entirely ceremonial, and he has long maintained a deliberately low public profile across his nearly 20-year reign. Before taking the crown, he represented Cambodia as an ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and gained early recognition as a trained classical ballet dancer. He currently remains unmarried and has no children.