Joe Biden’s ‘aggressive’ cancer diagnosis: Type, treatments and prognosis
Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The ‘aggressive’ disease was discovered by doctors when Biden went to the doctor for urinary symptoms, and has already spread to his bones.
The announcement of his diagnosis shocked the US, with countless politicians and other world leaders offering prayers and a speedy recovery.
Here’s everything you need to know.
What cancer does Joe Biden have?
Biden’s spokesperson confirmed he has been diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ prostate cancer.
Around one in eight men in the UK will get prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime.
That makes it the most common type of cancer for men in the UK – but it’s also one of the most treatable, with a 10-year survival rate of 98%, according to Cancer.net.
The prostate is a walnut-sized gland in male pelvis, located between the penis and the bladder, and surrounds the urethra.
Why is it ‘aggressive’, and what is the prognosis?
Prostate cancer is assigned a Gleason score, which ranges from two to 10 and indicates how abnormal the cancer cells are when compared to healthy tissue under a microscope.
Biden’s office said his score was nine, suggesting a highly aggressive form of the disease.
‘While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management,’ a statement said.
What are symptoms of prostate cancer?
According to the NHS website, symptoms of prostate cancer can include:
- Needing to pee more frequently, often during the night
- Needing to rush to the toilet
- Difficulty in starting to pee
- Straining or taking a long time while peeing
- Weak flow
- Feeling that your bladder has not emptied fully
- Blood in urine or blood in semen.
But stage four cancer is the most deadly – and hard to cure.
Biden’s official prognosis isn’t known, but his family is reviewing treatment options.
Men with prostate cancer which has spread – like Biden’s – can live ‘5, 7, 10 or more years with treatment’, Dr. Judd Moul, a prostate cancer expert at Duke University, told the New York Times.
What treatments are available?
This may include radiotherapy, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), cryotherapy, hormone treatment, or surgically removing the prostate.
But treatment will depend on the cancer. It varies from patient to patient. Your doctor will choose what’s best for you.
Have any other Presidents had cancer?
Biden isn’t the first US leader to have a cancer diagnosis – at least five other commanders-in-chief have also been given the devastating news.
In 1985, then-President Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with colon cancer and later given treatment for skin cancer. He recovered from both, later dying in 2004.
Jimmy Carter, who served from 1977 to 1981, was diagnosed with melanoma, which spread to his brain and liver in 2015.
He underwent treatment and was placed into remission. He died in January this year of old age.
Lyndon Johnson, who served as president in the 1960s, had a small bout of skin cancer treated in the late 1960s. He died in the early 1970s from a heart attack.
Going a bit further back in history, President Ulysses Grant died of throat cancer in 1885. He was president from 1869 to 1877.
And lastly, Grover Cleveland, who served as President twice (1885 to 1889, then 1893 to 1897), had surgery for cancer in his mouth. He died of a heart attack in the early 1900s.
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