Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, according to a statement released by his office on Sunday.
The 82-year-old Democrat was diagnosed on Friday after presenting with worsening urinary symptoms and following the discovery of a prostate nodule.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management,” the statement noted. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his medical team.”
Prostate cancer is common among men of Biden’s age, although it usually progresses slowly. Hormone therapy, while not curative, is often used to shrink tumours and delay progression.
Biden’s cancer has been given a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5), the highest level, which indicates that the cancer cells appear highly abnormal and are likely to grow and spread rapidly.
Biden left office in January this year, having served as the oldest president in US history. Throughout his presidency, concerns about his age and health—particularly his cognitive fitness—were frequently raised, even among Democratic supporters.
To critics who questioned his capacity to lead, Biden often responded simply: “Watch me.”
However, in July last year, he withdrew from the 2024 re-election race following a poor debate performance against Republican rival Donald Trump, which intensified public concerns about his mental sharpness.
His vice president, Kamala Harris, went on to contest the election but was defeated by Trump.
Biden has continued to insist that he could have won a second term, though scrutiny has grown around how staff and senior Democrats managed clear signs of his health challenges.
This scrutiny has intensified with the upcoming release of Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, a book by CNN journalist Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios, due out on Tuesday.
Further controversy was stirred last week by a newly surfaced recording of Biden speaking hesitantly and struggling to recall key facts and dates during his presidency.
Joe Biden’s life has been defined by personal tragedies. In 1972, his wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident just days after his election to the Senate at age 29. In 1988, he underwent two operations for brain aneurysms. In 2023, a basal cell carcinoma was removed from his chest, following previous removals of non-melanoma skin cancers.
His son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015.