Biden Is Diagnosed With an Aggressive Form of Prostate Cancer
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 urinary symptoms, which led doctors to find a “small nodule” on his prostate. Mr. Biden’s cancer is “characterized by a Gleason score of 9” with “metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.
The Gleason score is used to describe how prostate cancers look under a microscope; 9 and 10 are the most aggressive. The cancer is Stage 4, which means it has spread.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” according to the statement from Mr. Biden’s office, which was unsigned. “The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
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Prostate cancer experts say that Mr. Biden’s diagnosis is serious, and that once the cancer has spread to the bones — where it tends to go — it cannot be cured. But Dr. Judd Moul, a prostate cancer expert at Duke University, said men whose prostate cancer has spread “can live five, seven, 10 or more years.”
The first line of attack is to cut off the testosterone that feeds prostate cancer. Dr. Moul said that when he started out as a urologist in the 1980s, this was done by removing a man’s testicles. Today, men have a choice of two drugs given by injection that block the testicles from making testosterone or a pill that does the same thing. In addition, men take drugs that block any testosterone that manages to be made despite the drugs that inhibit its production.
Dr. Moul said he sees men Mr. Biden’s age with similar prostate cancer diagnoses on a regular basis. “Survival rates have almost tripled in the last decade,” he said.
President Trump, who has repeatedly bashed Mr. Biden and blames him for most of the country’s problems, was among those who issued supportive statements on Sunday evening.
Biden’s cancer diagnosis prompts bipartisan outpouring of support
Former President Biden’s political allies and rivals alike sent a flood of well wishes and tributes to the former president on Sunday following news of his cancer diagnosis, praising him as “a fighter.”
The news of Biden’s health challenges came amid renewed scrutiny of his decision to initially run for a second term despite questions about his mental acuity. Several Democrats over the past week went further than in the past by saying that he should have dropped out sooner. And many members of his party expressed frustration that he was returning to the media spotlight amid an avalanche of negative reporting.
But on Sunday, following the announcement of his diagnosis, Democrats and Republicans — including some of his most vocal critics — all struck a somber and respectful note, praising the former president and wishing him well…
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