Joe Biden battles prostate cancer amid advanced diagnosis

82-year-old Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones. The announcement was made by the spokesperson for the former US President. It is known that the cancer is a more aggressive form of the disease. It was added that the cancer is hormone-sensitive, which means that it is likely treatable.

The disease was detected because Biden had problems with his urinary system. Upon hearing of the 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 US. Most often, older individuals are affected. In 2015, Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer.

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.