DONALD Trump said he was “surprised” the public wasn’t told long ago about Joe Biden’s prostate cancer as he took a swipe at the former president.
Biden, 82, who served as president from 2021 to 2025, confirmed he had the advanced form of the disease in a statement on Sunday.
Trump questioned the accuracy of Biden’s diagnosis timeline on Monday, suggesting that it typically takes a considerable amount of time to progress to an advanced stage of cancer.
The US President previously expressed his support for the former president and his family.
He wrote on Truth Social: “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis.
“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
But Trump has now hinted that Biden might have been hiding his diagnosis from the public.
This comes after a leading oncologist claimed that Biden likely had cancer when he took office in 2021.
Dr Zeke Emanuel said: “He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading.”
Biden announced his cancer diagnosis in an official statement from his personal office on Sunday.
The statement said that he was seen by doctors last week after suffering urinary symptoms, with a prostate nodule then being found.
He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.
The statement read: “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.
“On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with 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 President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
A Gleason score of 9 indicates that the cancer cells appear highly abnormal and the illness is prone to rapid growth, as explained by Cancer Research UK.
Biden served as US president from 2021 to 2025, with his term ending on January 20 when Donald Trump took office.
Prior to this, the ex-president had encountered challenges related to his physical well-being, with reports indicating that he had faced several health concerns in his last year in power.
How could prostate cancer be missed?
By Sam Blanchard
It is likely that Joe Biden’s cancer started while he was still serving as president – as recently as January – but impossible to know how long he has had it.
Prostate cancer is widely regarded as the slowest growing form of cancer because it can take years for any sign of it to appear and many men never need treatment.
The former president’s office said his cancer is aggressive and has spread to his bones, further confusing the timeline.
PSA blood tests could indicate whether a patient is likely to have cancer but they become less accurate with age, and gold-standard tests involve taking biopsy tissue samples.
There is no guarantee that Mr Biden, 82, was tested during his presidency and, even if he was, the cancer is not certain to have been detected. It may have first formed a long time ago and only recently become aggressive, or started recently and grown very quickly.
Most cancers are found before they spread but a fast-growing one may be harder to catch in time.
Prostate cancers are well-known for not causing many symptoms in the early stages and the NHS says “there may be no signs for many years”.
The time it takes for a cancer to progress to stage four – known as metastatic, when it has spread to another body part – can vary from a number of months to many years.
Professor Suneil Jain, from Queen’s University Belfast, said: “Every prostate cancer is different and no-one from outside his direct team will have all the information to be specific about President Biden’s specific diagnosis or situation.
“In recent years there has been a lot of progress in the management of prostate cancer, with many new therapies becoming available.
“This has significantly extended the average life expectancy by a number of years.”
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in males and one in eight men develop it at some stage in their life.
There had been reports in the past Biden was “disoriented and out of it” during cabinet talks and that he had also struggled to recall certain memories, including that of his son Beau’s tragic death in 2015.
Biden was also forced to step down from his campaign for a second term in office, with the Democratic Party nomination being succeeded by his much-younger vice-president Kamala Harris, amid fears over Biden’s cognitive health.
Even before his final year in the Oval Office, there had been concerns over the president’s coughing and a number of stumbles he made while in the presidency.
This also isn’t the first time the former president has been diagnosed with cancer.
Before assuming the presidency, Biden had a number of “localized, non-melanoma skin cancers” removed by surgery.
Non-melanoma skin cancer typically develops in the areas of the body most exposed to the sun such as the face, ears, hands, shoulders, upper chest, and back.
In November 2021, Biden had a polyp removed from his colon that was a benign, but potentially pre-cancerous lesion.
And in February 2023, he had a skin lesion removed from his chest that was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer.
The former president had also made cancer moonshot one of his administration’s top priorities in 2022 – it aimed to halve the death rate of cancer by 2047.
The initiative was a continuation of his work as vice president to address a disease that had killed his older son, Beau.
What are the symptoms every man needs to know?
In most cases, prostate cancer doesn’t have any symptoms until the growth is big enough to put pressure on the urethra – that tube you pee through.
Symptoms include:
- Needing to urinate more often, especially at night
- Needing to rush to the toilet
- Difficulty in starting to pee
- Weak flow
- Straining and taking a long time while peeing
- Feeling that your bladder hasn’t emptied fully
Many men’s prostates get larger as they age because of the non-cancerous conditions, prostate enlargement, and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
In fact, these two conditions are more common than prostate cancer – but that doesn’t mean the symptoms should be ignored.
The signs that cancer has SPREAD include bone, back, or testicular pain, loss of appetite, and unexplained weight loss.
