Former President Joe Biden said this week that treatment for his prostate cancer has been effective, and he used the update to urge men, especially those at higher risk, to talk to their doctors about screening.
Biden posted the 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 wrote. “When prostate cancer is caught early, the five-year survival is close to 100%.”
He encouraged people not to delay conversations with their doctors. “So have the conversation with your doctor. Don’t put it off,” he said. “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.”
Turning to his own health, Biden said the radiation treatment he underwent last fall has worked as intended. “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.”
He closed by thanking supporters. “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,” Biden said.
Biden’s message on risk factors lines up with guidance from the American Cancer Society, which notes that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men other than skin cancer. The organization says the disease can occur at any age but is most often found in men over 65, and that it occurs more frequently, and often at a younger age, in men of African ancestry.
