JAKARTA - Former US President Joe Biden has just announced that he was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. This news shocked the public, considering that Biden last underwent prostate cancer screening more than a decade ago, in 2014 to be exact.
President Biden's latest PSA examination was recorded in 2014. Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a spokesman Biden said in a statement, quoted from the NBC News page.
Prostate cancer tests are generally carried out through PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests, which measure protein levels produced by prostate glands. High PSA levels can be an indicator of cancer, although these tests pose a fairly high risk of false positive results. Therefore, the US Prevention Service Task Force no longer recommends routine screening for men over the age of 70.
This 82-year-old man is recorded as 11 years old and has not undergone PSA examination. This sparked public questions about how long the cancer has developed and whether it is possible to miss during his tenure as president.
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Medical experts say advanced prostate cancer as experienced by Biden is rarely found, but it is not impossible. In this case, Biden's cancer is said to have developed into an aggressive form. Doctors claim that these conditions can be treated, but cannot be completely cured.
"This cancer is most likely already growing and spreading over the years," said Dr. Maria Emanuel, an oncologist who has also been an advisor to Covid-19 during the Biden administration transition, through the Morning Joe event on MSNBC.
In line with that, Dr. William Dahut, Chief Scientist of the American Cancer Society, added, "We are very confident that he has suffered from prostate cancer for years."
Even so, some doctors also note that in rare cases, prostate cancer can appear in very aggressive and fast-spreading forms, even in a short time.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, now 78, is still undergoing routine prostate cancer screening, with the latest PSA test reportedly carried out earlier this year, according to White House medical records.
The Biden case has re-opened discussions about the importance of routine screening, especially for elderly men to detect cancer from an early age before it develops worse.
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