WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his office said Sunday.
Biden was seen last week by doctors after urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” his office said. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
A regular medical exam revealed a “small nodule” on Biden’s prostate earlier this month, Nexstar’s The Hill previously reported. The finding “necessitated further evaluation,” a spokesperson told affiliate NewsNation.
In those diagnosed with prostate cancer, normal prostate cells become altered and start to grow “in an uncontrolled way,” the Prostate Cancer Foundation explains. As in other cancers, these cells will then form masses, known as tumors.
The organization says one in eight men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, making it the second most common cancer among men after skin cancer.
More than 313,000 new cases of prostate cancer could be diagnosed in the U.S. this year alone, the Prostate Cancer Foundation estimates.
Diagnosed early, there are many treatment options available, according to the Mayo Clinic. The same is true even if it grows beyond the prostate and spreads. It can, however, become more difficult to cure. Still, there are options to slow the cancer’s growth.
Treatment options can include surgery and multiple forms of therapy: beam radiation, brachytherapy, ablation, hormone, immunotherapy, targeted, and radiopharmaceutical.
The Cleveland Clinic says that when prostate cancer is diagnosed early, 99% of patients live at least five years after diagnosis. When the cancer has metastasized or spread, the survival rate drops to about 32%.
Prostate cancers are given a score called a Gleason score that measures, on a scale of 1 to 10, how the cancerous cells look compared with normal cells. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.
Biden, 82, had a lesion removed from his chest during a physical exam in 2023. It was determined to be a basal cell carcinoma, according to The Hill. Two years prior, he had a polyp removed from his colon that was a benign, but potentially pre-cancerous lesion.
His health was a top concern among voters during his time in office. After a calamitous debate performance in June while seeking reelection, Biden abandoned his bid for a second term. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee and lost to Republican Donald Trump, who returned to the White House after a four-year hiatus.
But in recent days, Biden rejected concerns about his age despite reporting in the new book “Original Sin” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that aides had shielded the public from the extent of his decline while serving as president.
In 2022, Biden made a “cancer moonshot” one of his administration’s priorities with the goal of halving the cancer death rate over the next 25 years. The initiative was a continuation of his work as vice president to address a disease that had killed his older son, Beau.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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