Joe Biden's battle against cancer diagnosis
Dramatic news broke on Sunday: Former U.S. President Joe Biden has prostate cancer. "If cancer has spread to the bones, we don't think it is considered a curable cancer," Dr. William Dahut, director of the American Cancer Society, told the BBC.
Joe Biden, 82, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. The announcement was made by a spokesperson for the former President. It is known to be a more aggressive form of the disease, but it was noted that the cancer is hormone-sensitive, which means it can likely be treated.
The disease was detected after Biden experienced urinary system problems. Upon learning of his illness, Donald Trump and his wife, among others, wished Biden a speedy recovery, while Kamala Harris called him a warrior.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men, right behind skin cancer in the USA. It primarily affects older individuals. In 2015, Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer.
Joe Biden has cancer. Doctors comment on the illness
"In general, if cancer has spread to the bones, we don't think it is considered a curable cancer," says Dr. William Dahut, director of the American Cancer Society, to the BBC.
However, he noted that most patients respond well to initial treatment and "people can live many years with the diagnosis." FOX News adds that the chance of surviving five years is 30-40%.
"It would be really surprising if they weren't doing a very close screening on this because everybody knows in the medical community that this is the one cancer in men you really look out for. He doesn't seem to have a lot of risk factors that I would think about other than age, but age is enough and he's 82, so that's a big risk factor," says Dr. Marc Siegel, a medical analyst, to FOX News.
Specialists state that besides hormone therapy, Biden could undergo radiation treatment targeting the bone lesion or have the prostate completely removed. Additionally, there are two types of medications used in treating this kind of advanced prostate cancer.
"The other thing I'm concerned about is bone pain, because those metastases to the bone can be pretty painful," says Siegel.
