President Biden’s last screening for prostate cancer before his diagnosis on Friday was in 2014, according to a statement issued by his office.
“Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer,” the former president’s office said in an official statement.
The statement claimed that Biden, who is now 82, did not receive a screening for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) for more than a decade, in line with medical advice.
Biden’s personal office announced the former president’s diagnosis with stage 4 prostate cancer last Sunday. The cancer is rated 9 out of 10 for aggressiveness and has metastasised to his bones.
“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.”
At a press conference on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether Biden’s diagnosis raised concerns about the competence of the President’s medical staff.
“Not as far as President Trump is concerned,” Leavitt said in response.
“The White House physician we have here is phenomenal, and the team of physicians that take care of the president, particularly at Walter Reed Medical Center, are great.”
Expert physicians, however, have called the former president’s diagnosis “inconceivable.”
“It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the Presidency,” wrote Dr. Howie Forman, a professor at Yale.
Forman noted the test for PSA would have shown Biden had cancer “for some time before this diagnosis.”
In early 2024, while Biden was the presumptive Democratic nominee for the presidency, he was deemed “fit to serve” by his physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, after a routine evaluation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Dr. Forman noted that Biden “must have had a PSA test numerous times before” and described the late-stage diagnosis as “odd.”
Forman also questioned whether Biden had been through screening in the last 12 years and if he “had a normal PSA prior to [age] 70?”
“It’s just so odd to discover this with bone [metastasis] in a man of his stature and [with his] access to care,” Forman added.
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel also seemed confused about how Biden’s diagnosis came about.
“This was found by physical examination by a prostate exam,’ Siegel said Sunday night.
“A lot of times, we find an elevation in prostate-specific antigen, PSA, and then we go after it.”
He said he tests all of his male patients over the age of 45 for the disease, and that if increased PSA is detected, an MRI scan is conducted and the possibility of a biopsy is considered.
In Biden’s case, it’s claimed doctors only performed a biopsy once he was experiencing urinary issues. Siegel said this is a sign that the cancer has already spread.
“I mean, he must have had the best possible care here,’ Siegel added, referring to the White House.
“I’m a little taken aback that it’s this far advanced.”
“It would be really surprising if they weren’t doing a very close screening on this because everybody knows in the medical community that this is the once cancer in men you really look out for.”