Former U.S. President Joe Biden, 82, has been diagnosed with an aggressive and advanced form of prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone, his office announced Sunday, reigniting concerns over his health that shadowed his final years in public life.
The diagnosis came Friday after Biden underwent medical evaluation for urinary symptoms.
Doctors found a prostate nodule, and further testing confirmed metastatic prostate cancer – among the most difficult types to treat.
His Gleason score, a measure of cancer aggressiveness, was reported at 9 out of 10, signaling a severe stage of the disease.
Despite the grim diagnosis, Biden’s office noted a critical silver lining: the cancer appears hormone-sensitive, a trait that allows for treatment options such as hormone-deprivation therapy. He and his family are currently exploring those options with physicians.
“When prostate cancer spreads, it often travels to the bones,” said the statement, underscoring the challenges of treating metastasized cancer, which can be elusive to drugs and harder to eradicate. However, hormone-sensitive tumors provide a therapeutic window.
Biden’s medical history has long been a focal point.
In February 2023, he had a basal cell carcinoma – a common form of skin cancer – removed from his chest.
Two years earlier, a pre-cancerous polyp was excised from his colon.
As vice president, Biden led a national effort to fight cancer following the death of his son, Beau, from brain cancer. In 2022, he reignited that campaign under the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative, pledging to halve cancer deaths within 25 years.
Yet despite his advocacy, his own health became a political liability. Questions about his cognitive sharpness and stamina escalated after a stumbling debate performance in June 2024, which ultimately led to him withdrawing from the presidential race in July.
Then-Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in as the Democratic nominee but lost to Donald Trump in the November election.
Biden had already made history as the oldest U.S. president at the time of his 2020 election. That milestone was eclipsed when Trump, now 78, reclaimed the presidency.
A recent political biography, Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, revealed that Biden’s aides deliberately masked the extent of his physical and mental decline during his presidency – an admission now cast in sharper relief with this cancer revelation.
