Biden thanks Americans for ‘love and support’ after prostate cancer diagnosis
Former President Joe Biden thanked Americans on Monday for their “love and support,” a day after it was disclosed he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
“Cancer touches us all,” Biden wrote on X in his first public comment about the diagnosis. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
Biden shared a picture of himself seated with former first lady Jill Biden and their cat, Willow.
Biden’s personal office said Sunday that he received the diagnosis two days earlier and that the cancer has spread to his bones. A statement from Biden’s office said the diagnosis “represents a more aggressive form” of cancer but that it appears to be sensitive to hormone therapy, allowing “for effective management.”
“The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” the statement said.
Cancer has long been a deeply personal issue – and cause – for the Biden family. The former president lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 and launched a “Cancer Moonshot” initiative to accelerate research on curing the disease as a tribute to his son.
The news of Joe Biden’s diagnosis comes as the 82-year-old former president and his party continue to grapple with his decision to run for re-election last year, a campaign he abandoned over the summer following a widely panned debate performance. Vice President Kamala Harris took over as the Democratic presidential nominee and lost the November election to Donald Trump.
A book about Biden’s decision – “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson – is set to be released Tuesday.
Trump wished Biden a “fast and successful recovery” in a social media post Sunday. But politics quickly took over in other corners of the GOP, as the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., questioned on X whether the announcement of Biden’s diagnosis was “yet another coverup.”
Vice President JD Vance said Monday he wished “the best” for Biden’s health but also said it remained fair to separately question whether Biden was fit to be president.
“Whether the right time to have this conversation is now or at some point in the future, we really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job,” Vance told reporters on Air Force Two before leaving Rome. “You can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with a recognition that whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president, I don’t think he was able to do a good job for the American people.”
Harris wrote on X on Sunday that she and her husband Doug Emhoff were “saddened to learn” of Biden’s diagnosis. “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. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery,” she added.
Biden has kept a mostly low profile since leaving office in January but resurfaced in recent weeks to give a speech critical of Trump at a conference focused on Social Security in Chicago. He also sat for his first major TV interviews since departing the White House, defending his legacy and decision-making around the 2024 election.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer among men, especially older men. While it usually grows slowly and initially remains confined to the prostate gland, where it may not cause serious harm, some types of prostate cancer can be aggressive and spread quickly to other parts of the body, including the bones.
The pathology report gave Biden’s cancer a Gleason score of 9 – in which 10 is the highest number possible – according to the statement from his office. A Gleason score reflects the appearance of cells under a microscope, and a high score indicates that many look malignant and not like normal prostate cells, said William Dahut, the chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society.
Dahut, who is not one of Biden’s doctors, worked until 2022 at the National Cancer Institute and ran the prostate cancer program. “Once it spreads to the bones, in general we no longer consider this a curable cancer, although there are therapies that are very effective at treating the cancer,” Dahut said.
Typically a patient is treated with a hormone therapy that blocks the production of testosterone, which helps the cancer grow, he said. “He could definitely live many years with this. There’s a wide range of how long people can live with metastatic prostate cancer,” Dahut said. “In the most aggressive cases, under a year, but there are reports of people living 15 or 20 years, too.”