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Joe Biden, former United States president was not diagnosed with prostate cancer until last week, and had not undergone a blood test for the disease in more than a decade, his office confirmed on Tuesday. The statement comes amid mounting criticism over the timing of the announcement, with some questioning whether Biden’s health condition was concealed during his presidency.
“President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014,” the statement read, referring to the prostate-specific antigen test commonly used to screen for prostate cancer. “Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer.”
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The 82-year-old was diagnosed on Friday with advanced prostate cancer that has since spread to his bones. According to his team, the cancer scored a 9 on the Gleason scale—a system that grades prostate cancer from 6 to 10—indicating a highly aggressive form of the disease.
The news has reignited debate around presidential transparency and health disclosures, particularly after Donald Trump, United States president, publicly questioned why the diagnosis had not been shared sooner. “Why did it take so long?” Trump said on Monday. “This takes a long time. It can take years to get to this level of danger. Somebody is not telling the facts, and that’s a big problem.”
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Medical experts have offered a more nuanced view. While some have expressed surprise that such a serious diagnosis was made so late, others note that standard medical guidelines do not recommend routine prostate cancer screening for men over the age of 70 due to the risks of overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment.
“It is entirely reasonable, albeit sad, that even a person of President Biden’s position may present with a new diagnosis of prostate cancer that is metastatic at his age,” Adam Weiner, a urologic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles told Al Jazeera. “Since President Biden is now 82, it is entirely possible he was screened for prostate cancer up to the recommended age and his newly diagnosed prostate cancer first occurred sometime since then.”
Nick James, a prostate cancer specialist at The Institute of Cancer Research in London, described the official account as “plausible, even if a bit unusual.” He noted that some prostate cancers produce very little PSA and can evade early detection through routine blood tests, Al Jazeera reported.
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Questions surrounding Biden’s physical and cognitive health have lingered throughout his presidency, becoming a central issue during his unsuccessful re-election campaign. Concerns deepened after a widely criticised debate performance in June prompted him to step aside from the 2024 race.
Critics have long accused Biden’s inner circle of downplaying or concealing the extent of his health challenges while in office. This latest diagnosis is likely to further fuel scrutiny of how transparent presidential administrations are with the public when it comes to matters of health.
For now, Biden’s office has not provided further details about his treatment plan or prognosis. But the diagnosis, and the questions it has raised, are likely to remain part of the political conversation in the months to come.
