Oct. 11 (UPI) — Former President Joe Biden has begun radiation therapy, in addition to hormone therapy, to treat aggressive prostate cancer, a spokesperson has confirmed.
The radiation treatments will continue over five weeks to treat the cancer that Biden, 82, first announced in May.
“As part of a treatment plan for prostate cancer, President Biden is currently undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment,” a Biden spokesperson told NBC News.
When Biden announced his cancer diagnosis, it already had spread to his bones, which his doctors had been treating with hormone medication.
“The expectation is we’re going to be able to beat this,” Biden told CNN in May.
“It’s not in any organ,” Biden said, adding that the cancer hadn’t penetrated any of his bones.
Doctors diagnosed Biden’s prostate cancer after he reported having issues with his urinary system, which led to the discovery of a small nodule on the former president’s prostate, according to the BBC.
Doctors determined it was an aggressive form of cancer that is vulnerable to hormone treatment.
The cancer’s spread to Biden’s bones makes it incurable, but recent developments in chemotherapy and hormone therapies can greatly extend the life expectancy of those who are similarly afflicted, Dr. Benjamin Davies, a urologic oncology professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told CNN.
Biden last month also underwent Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer lesions.
While president, Biden launched a “cancer moonshot” program to advance the ways in which cancers are diagnosed and treated.
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