The Former President Joe Biden Was Diagnosed With An ‘aggressive Form’ Of Prostate Cancer

We begin tonight with breaking news as former president Joe Biden has been diagnosed with what they’re calling an aggressive form of prostate cancer which has spread to his bones. this is according to his personal office. they just announced this. the 82-year-old former president’s office as biden and his family are now reviewing treatment options with his physicians.

Obviously a lot of i want to read you a full statement from the former president’s personal office. it says last week president joe biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate diagnosed with prostate cancer characterized by a gleason score of nine with metastasis to the bone. while this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive which allows for effective management.

The statement goes on to say that biden and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians. of course, former president biden at 82 years old made history as the oldest sitting u.s. president. and there were so many concerns and scrutiny about his the president of the united states, the president of the he’s being treated for high cholesterol as well as acid reflux and seasonal allergies.

We have asked the white house, the trump administration, as well as a spokesperson for dr. biden, the first lady, for comment and reaction to this concerning news. some signs of optimism, of course, that this type of prostate cancer can be responding to, it appears to be hormone sensitive, which allows for

EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT, BUT AGAIN, QUITE CONCERNING THAT IT HAS INDEED SPREAD TO HIS BONES. NOW, THE FORMER PRESIDENT HAS MAINTAINED RELATIVELY LOW PROFILE SINCE LEAVING OFFICE IN JANUARY, BUT WE HAVE STARTED TO SEE HIM REEMERGE ON THE WORLD STAGE. HE ATTENDED THE FUNERAL OF POPE FRANCIS BACK ON APRIL 26th, AND THEN ON MAY 8th, HE WAS FEATURED AS A GUEST ON THE VIEW ALONGSIDE THE FORMER FIRST LADY JILL BIDEN. NOW, WE DO NOT KNOW WHERE THE

president is being treated, but he is in wilmington this weekend with family, according to a source familiar. and, of course, cancer and curing cancer is something that is so near and dear to the former president. back during the obama administration after his son biden died of glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, the then vice president established the cancer moonshot, which was an initiative with a goal of ending cancer as we know it.

It was re-established in 2022. so again, very concerning news. some signs of optimism, but we will be tracking this quite closely, reaching out to all of our sources, jessica, and bringing you the latest updates as we get them. yeah, and betsy, again, just underscoring, this is breaking news. we’re still seeing this all kind of play out, but what about public support for the former president? i notice some people are starting to make public comments on this.

We are starting to see an outpouring of public support again. We haven’t heard anything just yet from the White House. We have asked for reaction. But we are going to be watching all of these, you know, it’s shocking news and hearing from some of the president’s top allies, advisors, former staffers, those that I’m talking to on text message, all exhibiting a lot of shock and concern and really sadness about their former boss.

Joe Biden was diagnosed with an ‘aggressive form’ of prostate cancer

Just rit large, really very concerned about what this news could portend. Of course, what his treatment is going to look like and and how this is going to progress certainly yeah no this is this is shocking news, especially for those who are close to him, who’ve worked with him for a long time.

I think it’s a great idea. thank you for being here with us. i really want to drill down into kind of getting some context around what this diagnosis can mean. i’m not a doctor, you are, and that’s why i think you can help us here.

What does this diagnosis say to you and help people understand how serious this is? well, first of all, jessica, the, you know, my thoughts are a physician tell them that they have cancer understands how uncertain and disorienting and terrifying these times can be. So so my thoughts go to the former president and and his family.

So prostate cancer is extraordinarily common. About one in eight men in this country will get prostate cancer during their their lifetime. And you know the outlook. The outlook I think depends a lot on the cell type and how responsive it is to hormone therapy. What we’ve heard so far, sort of bad news and good news. The bad news is that his Gleason score, which is how the pathologists grade the aggressiveness of the tumor by looking at it under the microscope, was quite high.

The Gleason score goes from 1 to 10, 1 being the best, 10 being the worst, and his tumor was graded as a 9, so a very aggressive form. The second adverse diagnostic that we’ve received is the fact that it’s now already metastatic to bone. So it’s no longer contained in the prostate. So this is not something that can be cured simply by doing a prostatectomy.

Without metastases, you know, prostate cancer is often treated initially with removing the prostate, but that’s not an issue here because the cells have already spread into other parts of the body and we’re told that it’s spread to the bone. But there are treatment options where the good news is that we’re told that the former president’s particular tumor appears to be sensitive to hormone therapy.

Joe Biden Health Update

The male hormone testosterone causes prostate cancers to grow. So blocking testosterone is a very important therapy in treating men with prostate cancer. So it sounds like that’s probably an option for him going forward. There are really a large array of potential therapies for people with metastatic prostate cancer, including immune therapy. This is really a cutting edge new therapy where you’re basically training someone’s own T cells, T immune cells, to go after the tumor.

There’s more traditional chemotherapy. So there are a lot of options going forward. So there are a lot of things to do. we’ll talk more about that in a few minutes. we’ll talk more about that in a few minutes. dana, thanks so much for jumping on and being here with us as we’re learning more about this breaking news.

I’m curious what you’re hearing. as i’m talking to people who worked with joe biden and obviously knew him, they’re surprised and they’re sad, frankly, to hear this news. that’s exactly right, jessica. i literally just got a text from who just said simply, this was already going to be a tough week and this makes it much harder.

And that is a reference to the fact that our colleague Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios, they of course have a book that’s set to publish on Tuesday talking about not some of former President Biden’s physical fitness while he was in office, but also about his mental acuity. And the idea that now the sort of the world is looking at President Biden and knows the fact that he has a very, very big physical challenge ahead of him, which is which is cancer and fighting cancer.

But what has occurred to me is that the stubbornness that is kind of a hallmark of his personality, one that I witnessed covering him when he was the United States senator for 10-plus years when I was covering Capitol Hill, when he was still there before he became a vice president, and then continue to have that sensibility in all ways, that’s going to serve him well here, Jessica.

That’s going to serve him very well because he is a hard-headed guy, and that means that cancer is going to have to try a lot harder to get in his way. medical experts, including Jonathan Reiner, who was on with you, and some of those Betsy was just referring to that a medical team was in touch with. And even according to the statement that the former president’s office put out, yes, it is in his bones, and that is just horrifying.

But the fact that it is the kind of cancer that apparently can be treated with hormone therapy is a big deal. And the fact that it is 2025 And frankly, not even 2023 or 2020. And that therapies are coming about and being discovered and worked on by excellent scientists every single day is a good thing for President Biden.

And so that is definitely something that the people in and around him, particularly his family, who are so close-knit, are no doubt taking solace from. Yeah. Dana, I want you to hang with us for just one second. We got a very brief statement from President Donald Trump, who is here at the White House this weekend expressing his concern and good wishes for former President Joe Biden.

I just want to read it to you very quickly. He posted it to social media. Quote, Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes, Jill and the family, and we Wish Joe a fast and successful recovery. Of course, the last time the two of them were seen together was at the funeral of Pope Francis back on April 26. They’ve had such a contentious relationship, but really a moment of solidarity, expressing his concern and well wishes to his predecessor.