19-5-2025
Doctors in America have wondered why former US President Joe Biden’s cancer was not detected earlier and allowed to spread “aggressive” to other parts of the body.
Mr. Biden who left office at 82, in January was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones. The discovering was made during a medical examination, after symptoms were noticed in his urine.
His case is rated with a Gleason score of 9 and Grade Group 5, which “represents a more aggressive form of the disease”.
“It’s the most aggressive type. That means it has the highest risk of spread – which obviously he has had.
“This was found by physical examination by a prostate exam. A lot of times we find an elevation in prostate-specific antigen, PSA, and then we go after it,” said Dr Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News
Seigel explained that he tests all of his male patients over the age of 45 for the disease – and is surprised Biden was not diagnosed this way.
Seigel said: “He must have had the best possible care here. I’m a little taken aback that it’s this far advanced.
“It would be really surprising if they weren’t doing a very close screening on this because everybody knows in the medical community that this is the one cancer in men you really look out for.”
Dr Howie Forman, a professor of radiology at Yale, was also shocked that Biden’s disease had not been picked up by routine blood tests.
He said: “It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the Presidency.”
Forman said that the test for specific prostate antigens would have shown the cancer “for some time before this diagnosis” – so it could have been picked up earlier.
He noted Biden “must have had a PSA test numerous times before” and concluded: “It’s just so odd to discover this with bone [metastasis] in a man of his stature and [with his] access to care.”
Similarly, on News Nation, urologist Dr David Shusterman said it is “unheard of” for cancer to develop with far without it being picked up.
He said: “It’s very unlikely that someone could get annual checkups and not notice,” – particularly true for Biden who had “state-of-the-art care”.
He continued: “It’s unusual to hear that someone has prostate cancer when they’re annually being followed up. The fact that we find it at a Gleason 9 is unheard of.”
Shusterman also suggested Biden “most likely had it for a long time”, and that there is “definitely evidence that he knew about this for a while”.
