Former President Joe Biden issued an update this week on his cancer diagnosis, saying that the treatment he received has improved his condition while advising at-risk men to get the needed screenings.
The former president issued an update in a statement on X to mark September as “Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.”
“More than 330,000 American men this year will hear the words we did last spring when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. By the time we found it, it had already spread to my bones,” he said. “When prostate cancer is caught early, the five-year survival is close to 100%.”
“So have the conversation with your doctor. Don’t put it off,” he continued. “If you’re at average risk, that conversation should start around 50, and the guidelines now say screening every 2 to 4 years. If you’re a Black man, start it at 45 or earlier. You are nearly 70% more likely to get this disease and 2 to 4 times more likely to die from it. Which is an outrage in the richest country in the world. If your father or your brother had prostate cancer, start the conversation at 45, and even earlier if more than one of them did.”
Biden then issued an update on his own condition, emphasizing that the treatment he received has been effective and that he may finish his memoir.
“I am deeply grateful to the doctors, nurses and other medical professionals who helped to control my cancer and who continue to take such good care of me. Their skill, dedication, and compassion mean so much,” he said. “The radiation treatment from last fall worked as intended, and I continue to do the things I care about, like finishing my memoir.”
“Thank you to everyone who has reached out and continues to keep me and my family in your prayers. We appreciate every single one of you,” he concluded.
The former president’s advice corresponds with the American Cancer Society, which says that “prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the US, other than skin cancer.”
“It can happen at any age, but the chances go up as a man gets older. Most prostate cancers are found in men over the age of 65. Prostate cancer occurs more often in men of African ancestry than in men of other races and ethnicities. And men of African ancestry often get prostate cancer at a younger age,” it adds.
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