The former president has been diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer, his office said.
The news that former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer has raised fresh questions about his White House’s transparency.
Biden’s office said in a statement on Sunday that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.
The news prompted some to question whether Biden may have known about the cancer long before he left office in January since it can be detected early with a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test. However, a professor of oncology told Newsweek that there is no benefit to such screenings and that Biden’s cancer likely “developed rapidly.”Why It Matters
Biden’s age and health were dominant concerns among voters during his time as president. The 82-year-old dismissed concerns about his mental acuity but ultimately dropped his bid for a second term following a disastrous debate performance in June last year. He was replaced as the Democratic nominee by then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the election to President Donald Trump.
The White House faced scrutiny over its transparency while Biden was president. But new questions have been raised about what the Biden administration and campaign hid from the public, with an upcoming book alleging White House aides covered up Biden’s physical and mental decline.
However, there is no current indication publicly available that Biden was diagnosed with cancer during his term as president.What To Know
Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what is known as a Gleason score, which ranges from 6 to 10. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.
Since Biden’s office announced the news, some doctors have questioned whether Biden knew he had cancer before leaving office.
Howard Forman, a professor of radiology and biomedical imagining at the Yale School of Medicine, said it is “inconceivable” that Biden’s cancer was not being followed before he left office.
“Gleason grade 9 would have had an elevated PSA level for some time before this diagnosis”, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “And he must have had a PSA test numerous times before. This is odd.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men who are 70 and older should not be routinely screened for prostate cancer. But Forman questioned whether Biden “really never had screening these past dozen years” or if he “had a normal PSA prior to 70.”
He added: “It’s just so odd to discover this with bone [metastasis] in a man of his stature and access to care.”
Dr. Nick James of the Institute of Cancer Research in the U.K., whose work focuses on new treatment approaches to bladder and prostate cancers, told Newsweek that he finds it “very surprising” that the former president’s first diagnosis showed the cancer has metastasized.
“I can’t say it’s impossible”, he said. “It has to be possible, but it is very unusual if you’re having regular health checks to suddenly go from non-metastatic, not detectable to metastatic, very detectable.”
Dr. David Shusterman, a urologist, told NewsNation that the type of cancer Biden has takes years to develop. “To me, it seems very surprising that the first diagnosis would be a metastatic diagnosis”, he said.
He added that Biden “most likely he had prostate cancer for a long time.”
However, Jonathan Waxman, a professor of oncology at Imperial College London and the founder and president of Prostate Cancer UK, told Newsweek that while prostate cancer usually “develops very slowly over the years”, Biden “has a high grade cancer which develops relatively rapidly.
