Former United States President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office has said.
Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after doctors discovered a prostate nodule, his office said in a statement released on Sunday.
The former president was taken in for examination after experiencing “increasing urinary symptoms”, the statement said.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management,” his office said.
“The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
Biden’s age and health were key concerns among US voters during his time as president, and ultimately torpedoed his bid for a second term.
After a halting performance in the first presidential debate in June 2024, Biden bowed to mounting pressure to end his re-election campaign.
Biden’s Democratic Party then named then-Vice President Kamala Harris as its nominee in November’s presidential election, which she lost to Donald Trump.
Trump, a fierce critic of Biden who continues to blame the former president for many of the US’s economic and foreign challenges, said on social media that he was saddened by the news and that he and the first lady “wish Joe a fast and successful recovery”.
Harris said she and her family were keeping the Bidens in “our hearts and prayers”.
“Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” Harris said.
Former US President Barack Obama, whom Biden served under as vice president, extended his sympathies and hailed the veteran politician’s efforts to advance cancer research.
“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace,” Obama said.
“We pray for a fast and full recovery.”
Renewed scrutiny
Biden’s cancer diagnosis comes as his decision to run for re-election in 2024 is facing renewed scrutiny ahead of the publication of a book detailing the alleged efforts of his inner circle to conceal the then-president’s physical and mental deterioration from the public.
Original Sin, written by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios correspondent Alex Thompson, includes numerous damning accounts of Biden’s decline, including that the then-president was unable to recognise Hollywood actor George Clooney at a 2024 fundraiser and that aides privately discussed the possibility he would need to use a wheelchair if re-elected.
In an appearance on ABC’s The View earlier this month, Biden pushed back on suggestions that he was suffering from serious cognitive decline towards the end of his presidency.
“They are wrong. There’s nothing to sustain that,” Biden said.
“The only reason I got out of the race is because I didn’t want to have a divided Democratic Party,” he added.
On Sunday, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy became the latest in a growing group of Democrats to acknowledge that Biden should not have run for a second term.
“It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier and set up a process that would have gotten us in a position when we could’ve been more competitive that fall,” Murphy said on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday, before Biden’s cancer diagnosis was made public.
Doctors grade prostate cancer on a scale of 1 to 10 using what is known as the Gleason score. Biden’s cancer was given a grade of 9, according to his office, indicating it is among the most advanced kinds.
While the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is close to 100 percent for early-stage tumours, the average survival rate for advanced forms of the disease is 28 percent, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Metastasised cancer is more difficult to treat than localised cancer because it involves tumours in various parts of the body that may respond differently to therapies.
Biden lost a son, Beau Biden, in 2015, to brain cancer.
