Biden says he has started cancer treatment: ‘The prognosis is good’

Former President Joe Biden, in his first public comments since announcing his prostate cancer diagnosis this month, said Friday that “we’re going to be able to beat this,” adding that he has started taking medications and is working with a leading surgeon.

“The prognosis is good. We’re working on everything. It’s moving along, and I feel good. All the folks are very optimistic,” Biden, 82, told reporters after speaking at a Memorial Day event in his home state of Delaware.

“It’s all a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill for the next six weeks and then another one,” Biden added. “The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this. There’s no – it’s not in any organ, my bones are strong, it hadn’t penetrated.”

Biden’s office said this month that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer that had metastasized to the bone, which the statement said “represents a more aggressive form of the disease.” His office said at the time that the cancer appears to be sensitive to hormone therapy, “which allows for effective management.” The pathology report, according to the statement, gave Biden’s cancer a Gleason score of 9 – with a 10 representing the most aggressive grade.

Biden said Friday that he was working with “one of the leading surgeons in the world” who had received the same diagnosis himself 32 years ago, and that doctor is “alive and well.”

Many prostate cancer patients undergo surgery. But because Biden’s cancer has spread to his bones, a more systemic treatment approach was necessary. The standard treatment typically involves blocking the production of testosterone, which fuels the growth of prostate cancer similar to how estrogen can influence the progression of breast cancer. This approach usually starts with an injection to quickly lower testosterone levels, followed by oral medications that further suppress male hormone production.

Biden’s cancer diagnosis coincided with continued questions about his mental and physical fitness as president and renewed accusations that his team covered up his cognitive decline last year as he campaigned for the presidency, before a disastrous debate performance prompted his withdrawal from the race. He continued to defend his health on Friday, and said he has no regrets.

“You can see that I’m mentally incompetent and I can’t walk,” Biden joked, before boasting that he could “beat the hell” out of his detractors.

Since the election, Biden has maintained he would have defeated President Donald Trump if he had remained in the race.

“Why didn’t they run against me then? Because I’d have beaten them,” he said Friday of Democrats who have since questioned his decision to run.

Many Democrats, some of whom continue to blame Biden for former vice president Kamala Harris’ loss to Trump, have been hopeful that he would exit public life. But Biden on Friday suggested he remained eager to engage and to defend his legacy.

“There’s a lot going on. I think we’re in a really difficult moment, not only in American history and in world history. I think we’re in one of those inflection points in history where the decisions we make in the next little bit are going to determine what things look like for the next 20 years,” Biden said. “I’ve been talking about that for a long time, and I’m very proud. I put my record as president against any president at all.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday accused former first lady Jill Biden of lying about her husband’s health and said she was “complicit in that cover-up.”

“The former first lady should certainly speak up about what she saw in regard to her husband and when she saw it and what she knew,” Leavitt said.

Responding to her comments, Joe Biden smiled and said, “I don’t know who the press secretary is.”

In his remarks at the Memorial Day event in New Castle, Delaware, Biden noted that “our politics have become so divided, so bitter. All the years I’ve been doing this, I never thought we’d get to this point, but we are.”

The event coincided with the 10th anniversary of the loss of his son Beau Biden, a veteran who died due to brain cancer. Biden said it was “a hard day,” but that being at the event “with all of you, quite frankly, makes things a little bit easier.” He was joined at the event by Beau’s son, Robert “Hunter” Biden II, and said that Beau’s legacy lives on “just like the legacy of all our fallen heroes.”

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Ariana Eunjung Cha contributed to this report.