Joe Biden, the 82-year-old former President of the United States, has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer that has spread to his bones—a deeply personal and challenging turn in the life of a man who has long stood as a symbol of resilience and public service.
The news came through a statement from his office on Sunday, just months after Biden made the difficult decision to step away from the 2024 presidential race, citing concerns related to his health and age. It turns out those concerns were not unfounded.
Biden had recently undergone medical evaluation following troubling urinary symptoms. On Friday, doctors confirmed a high-grade form of prostate cancer, assigning it a Gleason score of 9 out of 10—a sign of an aggressive disease. While the cancer has already reached his bones, it is hormone-sensitive, which gives doctors a wider array of treatment options and offers hope for managing the condition.
Though the cancer is no longer considered curable, experts emphasize it is treatable. Many patients with similar diagnoses can live for years with the right therapies, including hormone treatments that can slow the progression of the disease.
For Biden, this diagnosis is not just a medical battle—it is deeply intertwined with his personal history. The former president has long been a champion of cancer research, driven in part by the heartbreaking loss of his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. That loss spurred Biden to relaunch the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative in 2022 alongside First Lady Jill Biden, with a mission to dramatically reduce cancer deaths by 2047.
Now, as he faces this fight himself, Biden is surrounded by his family, leaning on both their support and the medical community he has long worked to strengthen. His journey ahead will not be easy, but if history is any guide, he will meet it with the same grit and grace that has defined his decades of public service.
