President Donald Trump expressed sympathy for his predecessor’s cancer diagnosis and surprise that the diagnosis was so recently revealed.
Former President Joe Biden’s office announced Sunday that Biden has an “aggressive form” of prostate cancer. The statement said that Biden received the diagnosis on Friday.
“I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago because to get to stage 9, that’s a long time,” Trump told reporters on Monday afternoon.
Biden’s cancer is stage four, but he received a Gleason score of nine, Grade Group 5. A Gleason score is a metric for grading prostate cancer. Higher scores, such as a nine or 10, suggest a much more aggressive, faster-spreading form of cancer.
“I just had my physical. You saw that, you saw the results of that particular test. I think that test is standard to pretty much anybody getting a physical, good physical,” said Trump.
Trump added that his physical included “cognitive tests” and said “anybody running for president should, you know, take a cognitive test.”
Biden’s office said in its Sunday statement that the former president’s prostate cancer has “metastasis to the bone.”
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the statement said. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
Biden posted a message on social media Monday: “Cancer touches us all. 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.”
The Sunday announcement has sparked skepticism from some physicians who say that, given the advanced form of Biden’s cancer, it is likely the former president was diagnosed much earlier.
Dr. Chris George, the medical director of Northwestern Health Network’s cancer program, said he would be shocked if Biden received a normal PSA, a prostate cancer screening result, within the past year.
“I would assume that the former president gets a very thorough physical every year,” George told Reuters. “I would be interested to know what his PSA was the last time it was checked.”
“It’s sort of hard for me to believe that he’s had a PSA within the past year, that was normal,” he said. “It’s possible. It’s definitely possible, but that would surprise me … Usually prostate cancer doesn’t, you know, go full throttle like this too often. When it does, that’s usually a bad, bad sign. That’s an aggressive cancer for sure. But it does seem odd to me.”
