Former US President Joe Biden has cancer that has spread to his bones. How dangerous is the disease?

Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, CNN reported, citing a statement from Biden's office on May 18.

"Last week, former President Joe Biden sought medical attention for an unusual nodule on his prostate after experiencing increasingly severe urinary symptoms. On May 16, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, with a Gleason score of 9 (Group 5), indicating that the cancer had spread to the bones," the office said in a statement.

"Although this is an aggressive form of cancer, it is still sensitive to hormones, so it can be treated effectively," the statement added.

According to the office, Mr. Biden and his family "are reviewing treatment options with doctors."

Former President Biden has kept a relatively low profile since leaving the White House, but he has recently begun to resurface. Earlier this month, he and his wife, Jill Biden, sat down for an interview with ABC News, where the former president denied suggestions that he had suffered cognitive decline during his final year in office.

"They're wrong. There's nothing to prove that," Biden said.

"Those people who weren't in the White House with us, they didn't see how hard he worked every day. He would wake up, work all day, and at night, when I was in bed reading, he was still making phone calls, reading briefings, working with his staff," the former first lady added.

Biden has long been a strong advocate for cancer research, according to CNN. He founded the "Cancer Moonshot" initiative after his eldest son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer.

The former president has previously been cured of ski.n cancer. In 2023, while in office, he had a lesion removed from his chest during a routine physical exam.

Biden’s personal physician at the time confirmed that it was basal cell carcinoma, one of the most common types of ski.n cancer. Doctors also said that the cancerous tissue had been completely removed and that he would not require further treatment.

What is prostate cancer?

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), prostate cancer is a type of cancer that forms in the tissue of the prostate - a small gland in men that produces seme.n.

It is the most common cancer in men and the second leading cause of cancer deat.h in the United States.

The NIH estimates that there will be about 313,780 new cases diagnosed this year, accounting for more than 15 percent of all new cancer cases.

There will be an estimated 35,770 deaths from prostate cancer this year, accounting for 5.8% of all cancer deaths.

Prostate cancer has a 5-year relative survival rate of about 98%, meaning 98% of patients are alive 5 years after diagnosis.

Typically, this type of cancer progresses very slowly, and early detection before symptoms appear does not significantly improve health or extend life.

However, even when it has spread, prostate cancer is usually very treatable.

According to the NIH, about 12.9% of men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. By 2022, there will be about 3.5 million men in the United States living with the disease.

The average ag.e at diagnosis is 68 years, and the average ag.e at deat.h from the disease is 79 years.

From 2013 to 2022, new cases increased by an average of 1.8% per year, but deaths decreased by an average of 0.6% per year from 2014 to 2023.

What is the Gleason score?

The Gleason grading system, or Gleason score, reflects how far prostate cancer is likely to spread, but does not accurately predict treatment outcomes.

According to the NIH, the Gleason score describes how abnormal the cancer cells are in the biopsy sample and how quickly the cells are likely to grow and spread.

This score is calculated by summing the scores of the two largest groups of cancer cells in the biopsy tissue sample.

The scoring system usually ranges from 6 to 10.

Mr. Biden was diagnosed with a Gleason score of 9, indicating highly invasive cancer.

A score of 9 indicates that the cancer cells are clearly different from normal prostate cells and have the ability to grow and spread rapidly. This puts Mr. Biden in the highest risk group (Group 5), which comes with a greater risk of widespread metastasis and a more difficult prognosis. However, because this type of cancer still responds to hormones, there are still effective treatment options.

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