Biden has been diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer
[May 19, 2025]
By JOSH BOAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with
prostate cancer, his office said Sunday.
The finding came after the 82-year-old reported urinary symptoms, which
led doctors to discover a nodule on his prostate. He was diagnosed with
prostate cancer on Friday, 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.”
Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what’s known as a
Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate
cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was 9,
suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.
When prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it often
spreads to the bones. Metastasized cancer is much harder to treat than
localized cancer because it can be hard for drugs to reach all the
tumors 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 tumors of
hormones.
Outcomes have improved in recent decades and patients can expect to live
with metastatic prostate cancer for four or five years, said Dr. Matthew
Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center.
“It’s very treatable, but not curable,” Smith said. “Most men in this
situation would be treated with drugs and would not be advised to have
either surgery or radiation therapy.”
Many political leaders sent Biden their wishes for his recovery.
President Donald Trump, a longtime political opponent, posted on social
media that he was saddened by the news and “we wish Joe a fast and
successful recovery.”
Biden's vice president, Kamala Harris, said on social media that she was
keeping him in her family's “hearts and prayers during this time.”
“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,” Harris wrote.
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Former President Joe Biden speaks at a conference in Chicago, April
15, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
Former President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were
with Biden, his former vice president, lauding his toughness.
“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in
all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this
challenge with his trademark resolve and grace,” Obama wrote on
social media.
The health of Biden was a dominant concern among voters during his
time as president. After a calamitous debate performance in June
while seeking reelection, Biden abandoned his bid for a second term.
Harris became the nominee and lost to Trump, a Republican who
returned to the White House after a four-year hiatus.
But in recent days, Biden rejected concerns about his age despite
reporting in the new book “Original Sin” by Jake Tapper and Alex
Thompson that aides had shielded the public from the extent of his
decline while serving as president.
In February 2023, Biden had a skin lesion removed from his chest
that was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer. And
in November 2021, he had a polyp removed from his colon that was a
benign, but potentially pre-cancerous lesion.
In 2022, Biden made a “cancer moonshot” one of his administration's
priorities with the goal of halving the cancer death rate over the
next 25 years. The initiative was a continuation of his work as vice
president to address a disease that had killed his older son, Beau,
who died from brain cancer in 2015.
His father, when announcing the goal to halve the cancer death rate,
said this could be an “American moment to prove to ourselves and,
quite frankly, the world that we can do really big things.”
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Associated Press writer Jon Fahey in New York contributed to this
report.
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