Former US President Joe Biden Diagnosed With 'Aggressive' Prostate Cancer

Joe Biden. (Twitter/@JoeBiden)

JAKARTA - Former US President Joe Biden was diagnosed with "aggressive" prostate cancer that has spread to the bone, his office said in a statement on Sunday.

Biden (82) was diagnosed on Friday after experiencing urinary tract symptoms. He and his family are reviewing treatment options with doctors, according to the statement.

"While this is a more aggressive form of disease, the cancer appears to be sensitive to hormones that allow effective treatment," his office said.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 236,659 prostate cancer cases diagnosed in 2021, 70 percent were diagnosed before cancer spreads out of the prostate. About 8 percent of the year's new prostate cancer diagnosis involved advanced disease.

Biden's office said the cancer got a score of nine out of 10 on the Gleason scoring system, which is used to help determine the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.

Dr. Herbert Lepor, an urologist at NYU Langone, said the score of nine was "a very high risk," but added that many men could live "five to 10 years and more" even with metastatic prostate cancer.

"Over the past decade, there has been a lot of progress in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer," he said.

It is known that Biden's physical health and mental acuity were in the spotlight during his presidency in 2021-2025. He suddenly ended his efforts to be re-elected last July, weeks after a debate over Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Joe Biden lost a son, Beau Biden, in 2015 due to brain cancer.

In 2022, Biden revived the Obama-era program known as Cancer Moonshot, which seeks to reduce the death toll from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years.