Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Was diagnosed on Friday with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office said in a statement on Sunday.
The diagnosis came after Mr Biden reported urine symptoms, as a result of which doctors found a “small lump” on his prostate. Mr Biden’s cancer is “characterized by a gleason score of 9” with “metastasis to the bone,” said the statement.
The Gleason score is used to describe what prostate cancer look like under a microscope; 9 and 10 are the most aggressive. The cancer is stage 4, which means that it has spread.
“Although this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer seems to be hormone sensitive that makes effective management possible,” said Mr Biden’s office, who was not signed. “The president and his family assess treatment options with his doctors.”
Mr. Biden, 82, left office in January as the oldest president in American history. During his presidency, Mr Biden was confronted with questions about his age and health, so that he had eventually left his re -election campaign under pressure from his own party.
Prostate cancer experts say that Mr Biden’s diagnosis is serious, and that as soon as the cancer has spread to the bones – where it tends to go – it cannot be cured. But Dr. Judd Moul, an expert from prostate cancer at Duke University, said that men whose prostate cancer has spread “can live five, seven, 10 or more years.”
The first attack line is to cut the testosterone that feeds prostate cancer. Dr. Moul said that when he started as an urologist in the 1980s, this was done by removing a man’s testicles. Nowadays men have the choice of two medicines that are given through injection that blocks the testicles for making testosterone or a pill that does the same. In addition, men use drugs that block every testosterone that succeeds in being made in it, despite the medicines that hinder its production.
Dr. Moul said he sees the age of men Mr Biden with similar diagnoses of prostate cancer on a regular basis. “The survival percentages have almost tripled over the past decade,” he said.
President Trump, who repeatedly blamed Mr. Biden and blamed him for the most problems of the country, was one of those who issued supporting statements on Sunday evening.
“Melania and I are sad to hear about the recent medical diagnosis of Joe Biden,” Mr Trump wrote on social media. “We extend our hottest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a quick and successful recovery.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who served with Mr Biden, said that she and her husband were ‘sad’ to learn from the diagnosis of the former president.
“Joe is a hunter – and I know that he will take on this challenge with the same power, resilience and optimism who have always defined his life and leadership,” she wrote on social media. “We are hopeful for a complete and fast recovery.”
Since leaving his office, Mr Biden has largely held a low profile, spent the majority of his time in Delaware and used to Washington to meet staff to plan his post-presidential life. After Mr. Trump had accepted the 100-day brand, and prior to the release of books on his presidency and the 2024 campaign, Mr. Biden participated in interviews to push back against claims that he suffered from mental decline.
“They are wrong,” said Mr. Biden during an interview about “The View”. “There is nothing to support that.”
He also said he could have beaten Mr. Trump if he had not stopped from the race.
Yet many top democrats are forced to take into account their fervent support of Mr Biden’s re -election campaign before a disastrous debate in June, in which he seemed disoriented and listless. After he stopped, Mr. Biden Mrs. Harris, who lost to Mr. Trump.
Adding fuel to the fire was the release this weekend of the audio of the interview of Mr. Biden’s 2023 with Robert K. Hur, the special counselor who investigated his handling of classified documents. AXIOS published the full tape of five hours prior to the plans of the Trump administration to release it this week, and it reveals Mr Biden’s stopping voice and his difficulty to provide dates and details.
Mr Hur eventually refused to recommend the charges to Mr Biden, partly because, he said, a jury would find the president a “sympathetic, well -meaning, older man with a bad memory.”
In February 2024, when Mr. Biden was still president, his old doctor “Fit to serve” after he had physically undergone a routine in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Mr Biden and his family have confronted countless health challenges throughout their lives. In 1988, Mr Biden fought against two brain aneurysmas that threatened to end his political career. His son Beau died in 2015 of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer.
When Mr Biden was asked in January, shortly before he left the office, whether he would have had the power to serve for another four years, he said he didn’t know.
“Who knows? So far, so good,” he said in an interview with USA Today. “But who knows what I’m going to be when I’m 86 years old?”
#Joe #Biden #diagnosed #aggressive #form #prostate #cancer