Topline
Former President Joe Biden’s diagnosis of late-stage prostate cancer has fueled new conspiracy theories, including from President Donald Trump, that he covered up his health issues during his presidency—but there are many variables that make his diagnosis timeline plausible, doctors say.
Former US president Joe Biden and former first lady Jill Bden make their way to board Marine One … More
Key Facts
Biden announced Sunday he was diagnosed with prostate cancer Friday after “experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” prompting the discovery of a small nodule on his prostate and elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA).
The former president has stage four prostate cancer that has spread to the bone, according to a statement.
While some skeptics have raised questions about why Biden might not have been routinely screened for prostate cancer given his stature and access to top medical care, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends against screening for most men 70 and older since they’re more likely to die from other causes first, and treatments could have unnecessary negative impacts on their quality of life.
“He could be receiving the best medical care that we have to offer as a nation and not be screened for prostate cancer,” Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist Dr. Michael Morris told USA Today, adding “excellent care means not under-testing, it also means not over-testing.”
Biden’s publicly released medical reports while president do not indicate whether he received regular PSA blood tests, the most common form of screening for prostate cancer.
Even if he were to receive regular screening, the tests can be imprecise and show false negatives, while it’s also possible for the cancer to develop between screenings, Dr. Alicia Morgans of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston told ABC News.
Medical opinions about the commonality of a diagnosis timeline like Biden’s vary widely: American Cancer Society chief scientific officer Dr. William Dahut told NBC “we definitely would anticipate that he has had prostate cancer for many, many years” given its advanced stage, Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center’s Dr. Matthew Smith told the Associated Press it’s “a very common scenario” to have a metastatic prostate cancer diagnosis come “as quite a surprise,” while Yale professor of radiology and biomedical imagining Howard Forman called it “inconceivable” Biden’s prostate health wasn’t being monitored prior to leaving office.
Chief Critics
Trump said Monday he was “surprised . . . the public wasn’t notified a long time ago” of Biden’s cancer, “because to get stage 9, that’s a long time,” referring to Biden’s cancer Gleason score. Vice President JD Vance also asked Monday “why didn’t the American people have a better sense of his health picture? Why didn’t the American people have more accurate information about what he was actually dealing with?” when asked by reporters about Biden’s diagnosis.
What Is The Gleason Scale?
Biden’s cancer has a Gleason score (a measurement of prostate cancer’s aggressiveness based on cell behavior) of 9.. Pathologists measure the two cell areas that make up the majority of the cancer then add the scores together to come up with the Gleason score, which ranges from 6, a low-grade cancer, to 10, a high-grade cancer, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
Big Number
8%. That’s the percentage of prostate cancers that have already metastasized at the time of their detection, according to a 2017-2021 study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Men older than 75 were more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage disease, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data from the U.S. Cancer Statistics Working Group.
Surprising Fact
Trump and former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush all released PSA scores while president. Many presidents have been treated for cancer either before, during or after their terms, including George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, though only two—Ronald Reagan and Grover Cleveland—had serious cancer while in office. Reagan, who at age 74 was the then-oldest president in history, had a cancerous polyp removed from his colon in 1985.
Tangent
Biden announced his cancer diagnosis two days before the release of a highly anticipated new book, “Original Sin,” about his mental decline by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson. The authors interviewed 200 people, mostly Democratic insiders, to detail what they describe as “aggressive efforts to hide his cognitive diminishment.” Among those alleged efforts are discussions about the possibility of him having to use a wheelchair if he were reelected, and the book notes his failure to recognize George Clooney at a fundraiser the actor hosted for him.
Further Reading
Trump Says He’s ‘Surprised’ Public Didn’t Know Of Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis Sooner—As Others Fuel Speculation Of A Cover-Up (Forbes)
Joe Biden Diagnosed With ‘Aggressive’ Form Of Prostate Cancer (Forbes)