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Former President Joe Biden is reviewing treatment options after he was diagnosed with an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones, his office said Sunday. Biden, 82, had experienced urinary symptoms that led to the discovery of a prostate nodule, according to his personal office, and he was diagnosed with cancer on Friday. (Altimari, 5/18)

Biden’s office said his cancer has a Gleason score of nine out of ten. To calculate the Gleason score, clinicians take multiple samples of the tumour, called biopsies. To obtain each sample, a small needle is inserted into the tumour and a sliver of tissue (usually around 12 millimetres long) is extracted for testing. Because the different regions of the tumour can have different cancer cells present, pathologists then pick two different sections of the tumour biopsy they think best represent the whole tumour. Then, they grade each of the two sections with a score from 1 to 5. Grade 1 means the cancer cells present look a lot like normal, healthy cells. Grade 5 means the cancer cells look very abnormal. To get a patient’s Gleason score, the two grades are added together. (Diepstraten and La Marca, 5/19)

President Donald Trump, who has constantly attacked Biden’s health and cognitive ability from the 2024 campaign trail to the present, sent well-wishes to Biden in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump said, referencing the First Lady. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.” (de Guzman, 5 /19)

Biden is likely to fight prostate cancer for the remainder of his life, specialists said. But men in advanced stages can live years or a decade longer, prostate cancer specialists said. Some 37% of patients diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer are alive after five years, based on data from patients diagnosed between 2014 and 2020, according to the American Cancer Society. Biden’s physicians didn’t publicly address his diagnosis. “Once it spreads to the bone, it’s usually not curable, but it is very treatable,” said Dr. Jason Efstathiou, a prostate-cancer radiation oncologist at Mass General Brigham. (Abbott and Whyte, 5/18)

"Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe," former President Obama said. (Falconer, 5/19)