On Tuesday, Joe Biden’s spokesman, Chris Meagher, responded to allegations by Donald Trump and his loyalists that the former Democratic leader tried to keep his prostate cancer hidden while he was still in the White House.
However, the former president’s spokesman reiterated that he was only diagnosed with the disease last week, saying, “President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014”.
Prostate cancer screening often involves a prostate-specific antigen test, known as PSA, which measures the level of protein produced by the prostate and could indicate potential disease. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends that men between the ages of 55 and 69 undergo this test periodically.
At the same time, the task force does not recommend routine screening for those 70 or older. Biden, now 82, had undergone his last PSA a full 11 years ago.
Since revealing his diagnosis Sunday, many have wondered if the former president was aware of his health condition while he was still in office.
Such an advanced prostate cancer diagnosis is rare but not impossible, according to doctors. Biden’s stage 4 cancer has reached an aggressive form, and experts say it is treatable but not curable.
Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who did not treat Biden but served on the Covid advisory board, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Monday that the cancer has most likely been growing and spreading for years.
Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, concurred, telling NBC News that in Biden’s case “we definitely would anticipate that he has had prostate cancer for many, many years.”
However, there are exceptions, and some experts said that in rare cases patients can develop a high-risk form of cancer that spreads rapidly and aggressively.
Later in the week, after an initial wave of sympathy for him, Biden was criticized again by Donald Trump and his supporters who accused the former Democratic leader of trying to hide his real health condition while he was still in Washington DC.
“Somebody is not telling the facts. … It’s a big problem”, Trump declared. “We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job”, Vice President JD Vance said instead.
In any case, some experts said that even if the allegations of the MAGA leader and his closest allies were true, the prostate cancer would not have affected Biden’s cognitive faculties.
