"No one is doing more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all forms," the former president said in a statement.
Barack Obama sends his best wishes to Joe Biden and his family as the former president was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
“Michelle and I were thinking about the entire Biden family,” Obama wrote on social media. “No one is doing more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all forms, not Joe, and I’m sure he will respond with his trademark determination and grace. We pray for a quick and full recovery.”
Biden's office shared the news in a statement yesterday, noting that he was diagnosed on Friday. The diagnosis was announced in an announcement last week that during a “routine physical examination,” Biden’s doctors found a “small nodule” on the prostate, which they said needed “further evaluation.”
"Last week, President Joe Biden discovered new findings of prostate nodules due to increased urine symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (5th Grade 5), with bone metastasizing the bones," the statement said. "While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive and can be managed effectively. The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with doctors."
Obama's statement refers to Biden's Cancer Monthly initiative, which he originally launched in 2016 when he was vice president. The initiative was rebuilt in 2022 after he took office as president. It was created to “make ten years of advances in prevention, diagnosis and treatment within five years”. To date, it has supported 250 research projects and supported more than 70 programs and consortiums.
Biden was inspired to focus on cancer research after his son Beau died at the age of 46 in 2015 after he was diagnosed with glioblastoma polymorpha (the most aggressive type of brain cancer) in 2015.
The American Cancer Society estimates that one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, depending on age, race, race and other factors.