Joe Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer

Washington: Former US president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.

In a statement released on Sunday afternoon in the US, his personal office said the 82-year-old was seen by doctors last week after experiencing urinary symptoms, and a prostate nodule was found.

Former US president Joe Biden speaks at a conference in Chicago in April.Credit: AP

“On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management. The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

The Gleason score measures, on a scale of 1 to 10, how the cancerous cells look compared with normal cells. Biden’s score of 9 suggests his prostate cancer is among the most aggressive.

President Donald Trump said he and first lady Melania Trump were saddened by the news.

“We extend our warmest and best wishes to [Biden’s wife] Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” he said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Biden would “meet this challenge with his renowned grace and take up this fight with his characteristic courage”.

“No world leader has done more to drive progress in the treatment of cancer and the search for a cure than Joe Biden,” he posted on X.

“In this work, he has always been thinking of others. Today, all of us are thinking of him. Joe, Jill and their loved ones are in our hearts.”

Biden’s diagnosis may blunt or pause the renewed criticism of his legacy that has attended the release of a book investigating his physical and mental condition in office, and of an audio recording from 2023, during which the then-president failed to recall certain dates and details.

The book, Original Sin, portrays a “cover-up” of the president’s decline by his inner circle, the Democrats, and, to an extent, the media.

Among its revelations is that Biden failed to recognise actor and Democratic donor George Clooney at a fundraiser Clooney was hosting in Los Angeles less than two weeks before Biden’s disastrous presidential debate against Trump in June.

Aides reportedly discussed the use of a wheelchair if Biden had won a second term, according to the book, and one unnamed “insider” told the book’s authors: “Five people were running the country and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”

Audio was also released last week from interviews Biden gave to special prosecutor Robert Hur, who was investigating Biden’s handling of classified materials. Hur opted not to bring charges and said Biden would probably be seen by a jury as “a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

After the news of Biden’s cancer diagnosis broke, Kamala Harris, who served as Biden’s vice president and replaced him as the Democratic presidential candidate last year, posted a photograph of herself and Biden on X.

“Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” she said.

Over the past week, Democrats have again had to answer questions about whether they misrepresented Biden’s fitness for office, and whether they erred by indulging his re-election bid until he bowed out weeks after the June 2024 debate.

“We all bear responsibility,” Democratic senator Chris Murphy told NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Washington time, before the cancer diagnosis became public.

“We maybe didn’t listen as early as we should have, in part because we have immense loyalty to this man who had led this country out of a pandemic, who had been maybe the most prodigious legislator as a president … in a generation.

“But ultimately, in retrospect, you can’t defend what the Democratic Party did because we are stuck with a madman, with a corrupt president in the Oval Office, and we should have given ourselves a better chance to win.”

One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, with the average age of first diagnosis being 67, the American Cancer Society says. It is the second-biggest cancer killer among American men after lung cancer.

When prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, the bones are a frequent site of metastasis. Metastasised cancer is much harder to treat than localised cancer because it can be difficult for drugs to reach all the tumours and completely root out the disease.

However, when prostate cancers need hormones to grow, as in Biden’s case, they can be susceptible to treatment that deprives the tumours of hormones.

With AP

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