Former President Joe Biden has been smooth, his office announced on Sunday. It wasn’t until a medical examination last week that the diagnosis was substantiated. The cancer cells have metastasized to the bone and have a Gleason score of 9, identifying it as one of the deadliest variants of the disease.
Biden, who is 82 years old, went to the doctor complaining of urinary symptoms. In the course of a physical exam, clinicians found an unusual prostate nodule, triggering further testing and the eventual diagnosis. His office stressed that the cancer is severe, but hormone-sensitive. This feature makes them very controllable through treatments that starve the tumors of the hormones they crave.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” – Biden’s office
This diagnosis follows a period of time where Biden’s health has been a major worry for voters during his presidency. In February 2023, he underwent surgery to remove a cancerous skin lesion from his chest. Her doctors diagnosed it as basal cell carcinoma, a less dangerous common skin cancer. On top of that, he had a colon polyp removed in November 2021 that was benign, but they said it was possibly pre-cancerous.
Biden’s personal connection to cancer goes back further than his recent diagnosis. VIDEO… His son Beau who sadly passed from brain cancer, something that Biden fought to combat while serving as vice president and now as president. As Vice President in 2016, he led the administration’s “cancer moonshot” initiative. His ambition is to reduce the cancer mortality rate by 50% over the next 25 years.
Biden had already signaled his intention to seek re-election. He dropped out of his campaign after a rocky debate performance in June.
That major criticism aside, it’s clear Biden is taking control of the narrative on his health. In the meantime, the public and political landscape are paying very close attention to his fate. His diagnosis takes a major toll on his personal life. It further raises key issues of health and equity, and leadership nationwide.
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