Biden has been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer

Former President Joe Biden addresses attendees at a conference in Chicago on April 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

By  NEWS BLENS 360

Updated 4:17 PM CDT, May 18, 2025

WASHINGTON (NB360) — Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his office announced on Sunday.

Biden consulted with doctors last week after experiencing urinary symptoms and the discovery of a prostate nodule. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones.

“Although this is a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, allowing for effective management,” his office stated. “The President and his family are considering treatment options with his medical team.”

Prostate cancers receive a Gleason score, which ranges from 1 to 10, indicating how the cancerous cells compare to normal cells. Biden’s office reported his score as 9, indicating a highly aggressive form of cancer.

When prostate cancer spreads, it often moves to the bones. Metastasized cancer is more challenging to treat than localized cancer because it can be difficult for medications to reach all tumors and eliminate the disease completely.

However, prostate cancers that rely on hormones to grow, as in Biden’s case, can be vulnerable to treatments that deprive the tumors of hormones.

Biden's health, at 82, was a significant concern among voters during his presidency. After a disastrous debate performance in June while running for reelection, Biden withdrew from the race for a second term. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee but lost to Republican Donald Trump, who returned to the White House after a four-year break.

Recently, Biden dismissed concerns about his age despite revelations in the book “Original Sin” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that aides had concealed the extent of his decline during his presidency.

In February 2023, Biden had a basal cell carcinoma, a common skin cancer, removed from his chest. In November 2021, he had a benign but potentially pre-cancerous polyp removed from his colon.

In 2022, Biden prioritized a “cancer moonshot” initiative aiming to reduce the cancer death rate by half over the next 25 years. This effort continued his work as vice president to combat a disease that claimed his older son, Beau, who died from brain cancer in 2015.

When announcing the goal to halve the cancer death rate, his father called it an “American moment to prove to ourselves and, quite frankly, the world that we can do really big things.”