Former Democratic President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
According to the AP, doctors saw Biden last week after urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer on May 16, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone. “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” his office said. “The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
His office indicated that the former chief executive has one of the more aggressive forms of cancer. Cancer that has metastasized is usually harder to treat than localized forms of the disease because it can be hard for drugs to reach all the tumors. However, Biden’s cancers apparently need hormones to grow, and they can be susceptible to treatment that deprives the tumors of those hormones.
The health of Biden, 82, was a concern among voters and, reportedly, his inner circle while he led the country, with said concerns reaching a peak after his debate performance against current President Donald Trump last June. Biden has had bouts with cancer before: In November 2021, he had a benign polyp removed from his colon and, in 2023, had a skin lesion removed from his chest that was a basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer.
Earlier this month, on the talk show The View, Biden refuted suggestions he experienced cognitive decline in his final year in office, per CNN.