Medical professionals have expressed significant doubts regarding the timing of former president Joe Biden's recently announced cancer diagnosis, with some suggesting the delay in detection could indicate a deliberate concealment of his health condition.
The 82-year-old former chief executive has been diagnosed with an aggressive and incurable form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bone, according to a Sunday announcement from his office. Biden reportedly sought medical care after experiencing urinary symptoms, but healthcare specialists are questioning the credibility of this timeline, wondering how such a serious condition could have evaded detection during his presidency.
Professor Karol Sikora, who previously directed the World Health Organization Cancer program and founded the University of Buckingham Medical School, characterized the late-stage diagnosis as "very unusual" in comments to The Telegraph. He suggested two possibilities: either Biden's medical team deliberately concealed the condition, or the former president developed an unusually aggressive cancer. "He would have had health screens every month and he doesn't have to wait six weeks to see his GP. He's not likely to be asking the NHS for advice," Prof Sikora told The Telegraph.
Video: Biden in 2022 says he has cancer / Credit: White House
This perspective has found support from Donald Trump Jr., son of the current president, The Telegraph notes. Incorrectly describing Biden's condition as stage five rather than stage four, Trump Jr. posted on X: "How did Dr Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup??? [sic]" While Mrs. Biden holds a doctorate in education rather than medicine, numerous prominent US healthcare professionals have raised questions about why routine prostate screening tests – recommended for all men over 50 – apparently failed to detect Biden's cancer earlier.
Following the announcement, Biden shared an emotional message on social media Monday morning, The Telegraph reports. "Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learnt that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support," the former president wrote.
Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support. pic.twitter.com/oSS1vGIiwU
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 19, 2025
The revelation comes as particularly startling given that Biden – the oldest serving president in American history – received a clean bill of health from his physician amid growing concerns about his age and health during his presidency, according to The Telegraph. In February of last year, his longtime doctor Kevin O'Connor declared there were "no new concerns" with the president's health.
Biden's office revealed in their statement: "On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 [Grade Group 5] with metastasis to the bone." The Telegraph explains that prostate cancers are graded using the Gleason scoring system, with Biden's score of 9 indicating one of the most aggressive forms. Cancer that has metastasized – spread to other parts of the body – presents significantly greater treatment challenges than localized cancer.
The statement continued, "While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians," The Telegraph reports.
Dr. Howie Forman, a radiology and biomedical imaging professor at Yale who previously worked as a health policy fellow in the US Senate, expressed disbelief at the situation. "It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the presidency," he wrote on X, adding that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing would have shown elevated cancer cell levels "for some time before this diagnosis," The Telegraph notes.
Whether Biden underwent prostate cancer screening during his presidency remains unclear, leaving open the possibility that his aggressive cancer developed undetected, despite warnings from health organizations about PSA testing reliability, according to The Telegraph. Other health experts have joined in questioning how such a cancer could escape detection in someone with Biden's access to premier medical care.
Dr. David Shusterman, a urologist, told News Nation, "It's unusual to hear that someone has prostate cancer when they're annually being followed up. The fact that we find it at a Gleason 9 is unheard of." He emphasized that Biden would have had "state-of-the-art care," The Telegraph reports.
"That's why I and so many other people have cancer." — Joe Biden, July 2022pic.twitter.com/YgcyaLR31K
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) May 18, 2025
Dr. Stephen Quay, a physician and cancer specialist, offered an even stronger opinion, stating it would constitute "malpractice" not to test a sitting US president for prostate cancer. "It is highly likely he was carrying a diagnosis of prostate cancer throughout his White House tenure and the American people were uninformed," he added, according to The Telegraph.
While prostate cancers typically grow more slowly than other cancer types – potentially taking up to eight years to spread beyond the prostate – certain aggressive forms can progress rapidly, The Telegraph explains. Biden's treatment options remain undisclosed, though specialists note that given his age and the cancer's spread to his bones, surgical removal of the prostate is unlikely.
Treatment outcomes for metastatic prostate cancer have improved in recent decades, with patients typically living four to five years after diagnosis, according to Dr. Matthew Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center, The Telegraph reports. Sophie Smith, a senior specialist nurse at Prostate Cancer UK, described the condition as "treatable, but not curable."
Beyond hormone therapy, some patients receive chemotherapy or radiation treatment, The Telegraph notes. Given that Biden's cancer cells have metastasized to his bone, surgery to remove the prostate is highly improbable, according to Smith. However, she emphasized that treatments remain "very effective" even for metastatic cases, with men diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer often living "easily" for "five to 10 years."
"It is very possible Joe Biden could die of something totally different," Smith added. "Prostate cancer can be very difficult to diagnose, it can develop without symptoms," she told The Telegraph, noting that neither the US nor UK maintains a national screening program for the disease.
The Telegraph reports that Biden has faced previous health challenges, including removal of a basal cell carcinoma (a common skin cancer) from his chest in February 2023, and extraction of a benign but potentially precancerous colon lesion in November 2021.
A video from 2022 has resurfaced following the diagnosis, showing Biden seemingly stating he had cancer. While delivering a speech on environmental pollution in Massachusetts, he said in present tense: "That's why I – and so damn many other people I grew up with – have cancer," fueling speculation about his health at the time.
A Biden official at the time said official Biden had "mistakenly stated (present tense) that he has cancer," but in face was referencing past treatment for other types of cancer.
The cancer announcement arrived shortly after the release of "Original Sin," a new book based on White House insider accounts claiming that Biden's aides shielded the public from the full extent of his cognitive decline during his presidency, The Telegraph reports. On Sunday evening, Biden's granddaughter Naomi criticized CNN media analyst Brian Stelter, who called the timing of her grandfather's cancer announcement "extraordinary" given its proximity to the book's release by his CNN colleague Jake Tapper.
When an X user questioned whether Stelter "had no shame" for appearing to promote the book on air, Naomi Biden responded simply: "Apparently not," The Telegraph notes.
