CNN
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Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with a “aggressive form” of prostate cancer, as spreading across his bones, according to a statement in his personal office Sunday.
“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen in a new discovery of the prostate nodules after experiencing an increase in urinary symptoms. On Friday he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and is characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (grade group 5) including metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.
“This represents a more aggressive form of disease, but cancer is hormone sensitive and allows for effective management.”
Biden, 82, and his family are “reviewing treatment options with his doctor,” the statement said.
The news comes days after a Biden spokesman said the former president had recently been evaluated for a “small nodule” discovered in his prostate.
“Prostate cancer is very common,” says Jamin Brahmbhatt, PhD, a urologist and robotic surgeon at Orlando Health and an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida School of Medicine who is not involved in Biden’s treatment. “As we get older, most men will have almost cancer cells in them.”
Prostate cancer can be assigned a grade known as a Gleason score based on how the cells look under a microscope. A Gleason score of 9 “means that’s the most aggressive form of prostate cancer,” says Dr. Benjamin Davis, a professor of urological oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, who is not involved in Biden’s case either.
Biden will be at his home in Wilmington, Delaware this weekend, according to familiar sources. CNN asked where the former president is being treated.
The oldest president in US history, age and health concerns narrowed focus during his tenure after halting his debate with Donald Trump last June.
In February 2024, Biden experienced a body supervised by doctor Dr. Kevin O’Connor at Walter Reed National Military Center.
Written by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson explains how aides showed signs of decline that their aides ignored or described, even before Biden’s disastrous debate that led to his decision to close the 2024 election three weeks later.
Tupper and Thompson personally debated whether Biden’s aides would have to put him in a wheelchair for his second term, writing that Biden did not recognize movie star George Clooney during a June 2024 fundraiser.
Biden has maintained a relatively low profile since leaving the White House, but has slowly begun to re-emerge on the public stage. He appeared on ABC’s “The View” with his wife Jill Biden earlier this month, where he pushed back a proposal that he had experienced cognitive decline in his final year.
“They’re wrong,” Joe Biden said. “There’s nothing to keep it.”
The former first lady said, “The people who wrote those books weren’t in the White House with us, so we didn’t know how hard Joe worked every day.
Trump continues to criticize Biden even after the then-president dropped out of the 2024 race, claiming that Biden is suffering from cognitive decline. During Trump’s trip to the Middle East last week, he criticized his domestic political opponents while traveling abroad, largely ignored the longtime president’s norms of avoiding avoiding domestic political opponents while attacking his predecessors multiple times. But Trump put his feelings aside on Sunday as he read well for the former president.
“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis. We will spread the warmest and best wishes to Jill and his family. Joe wishes a quick and successful recovery.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who took over the Democratic campaign after Biden dropped out of the race, also wanted the former president to recover quickly, adding, “Joe is a fighter.”
“Doug and I are saddened to learn of President Biden’s diagnosis of prostate cancer. We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and throughout this time he is keeping him in our hearts and prayers,” Harris wrote to X. “Joe is a fighter.
In addition to Gleason’s score, factors such as blood prostate-specific antigen levels, imaging tests, and biopsy findings are important in determining cancer behavior and which treatment options are best.
Even patients with high-risk prostate cancer can “live a fairly normal life and improve the quality of life as long as the cancer is being treated,” Brahmbhatt said. The treatment is personalized to each patient and can come in several forms, including hormone therapy, chemotherapy, and radiation.
The fact that Biden’s cancer is spreading to the bone is “very serious and incurable,” Davis said. However, “There is some good news about the recent years of new hormones and chemotherapy treatments in this space (which came) have shown impressive results and have significantly expanded patient lifespan.”
Brahmbhatt said it could take “a few weeks” to see which direction Biden’s treatment will take. “Some treatments can affect memory, mood and quality of life, so you don’t want to be overly aggressive, so you need to be very careful about what you do in the end.”
Cancer has long been a personal issue for Biden, who died in 2015 at 46 years old, a veteran of the Iraq War and former Delaware Attorney General, a son, Beau, who died of a brain tumor at the age of 46.
In the 2016 presidential memorandum, then-President Barack Obama tapped his vice president, Biden, to lead the White House task force aimed at cancer treatment. At the time, Biden vowed that he was “not naive about the challenges going forward,” but he vowed that he was “not optimistic that we could do big things.”
In 2022, then-President Biden reestablished the program, dubbed the Cancer Moonshot initiative, and committed the nation to work towards reducing cancer mortality by at least 50% over the next 25 years.
“We are mobilizing efforts across the country to reduce cancer deaths in America by 20 or 25 years and increase the support of patients and their families. I am confident in our ability to do that. We know we can do it, but that’s not personal – that’s possible.
Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton both highlighted Biden’s efforts to end cancer with their well-diluted diluter.
“When the Bidens have cancer, I think they’re a disease that has done a lot to try and save other families. I hope you have a quick and full recovery,” Clinton posted on X.
“Michelle and I are thinking about the whole Biden family,” Obama posted on X.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Arlette Saenz, Kit Maher, Julia Benbrook and Jeremy Herb contributed to this report.