Biden's Prostate Cancer Transparency
President Biden's announcement Sunday that he has stage 4 prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones, is a sad moment for the country, and we wish him and his family the best for treatment and prognosis. But Mr. Biden owes the public more information, given that he left office only 120 days ago, after telling voters he was fit to stay through 2029 and age 86.
The statement from Mr. Biden's office said he was diagnosed Friday after being seen 'for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms.' When did his symptoms start? A spokesman told the press Tuesday that Mr. Biden's last known PSA blood test, which screens for prostate specific antigen, was in 2014. Why? Could another test have caught the cancer earlier?
One prominent oncologist, Obama Administration veteran Ezekiel Emanuel, offered an unsettling medical assessment on MSNBC. 'He's had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,' Dr. Emanuel said. 'It's a little surprising. I looked back at the records, and there's no evidence that when he got his health status, and the medical records were released, that he had a prostate specific antigen.'
That blood test isn't perfect, and other doctors quoted in the press say they've had patients develop aggressive cancers like Mr. Biden's, despite clean PSA tests. Mr. Biden was 78 when he was sworn in as President. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force currently recommends against PSA screening of patients 70 and older, saying that the potential harms outweigh the benefits for a population that already has a heightened risk of mortality from all causes.
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