A statement from Biden’s office comes after US President Donald Trump expressed doubts about the timing of the diagnosis.
Joe Biden’s former US president had not been diagnosed with prostate cancer by last week and had his “last known” blood test for the illness more than a decade ago, his office said.
A Biden Camp statement on Tuesday was born a critic, including the current President Donald Trump, and surprised skeptics about the timing of his diagnosis.
“President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014,” Biden’s office said in a brief statement, referring to the prostate-specific antigen tests used to detect prostate cancer.
“President Biden was never diagnosed with prostate cancer before Friday.”
On Monday, Trump said he was “shocked” that the public had not been notified of the “old” Biden diagnosis.
“Why did it take so long? This takes a long time. It can take years to get this level of risk,” Trump told White House reporters, referring to the sophisticated nature of Biden cancer.
“It’s a big problem because no one’s telling the truth,” Trump said.
Biden’s office said Sunday that the former president had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to his bones two days ago.
Biden’s office said his cancer’s Gleason classification system has graded a score of 9 from 6 to 10. This shows that it is one of the most aggressive types.
Some doctors suspect that 82-year-old Biden was not diagnosed previously considering access to the best medical care, while others have pointed out that it is generally not recommended for men of his age, and that some cancers do not appear on tests.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States and other healthcare providers do not recommend routine screening for prostate cancer in more than 70 men due to quality of life issues caused by unnecessary treatment.
“Even though sad, it’s completely reasonable for even those in President Biden’s position to present a new diagnosis of prostate cancer that will metastasize at his age,” Adam Weiner, a urological surgeon at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told Al Jazeera.
“President Biden is currently 82 years old, so there is a full chance that he may have been screened for prostate cancer to the recommended age, and it is possible that the newly diagnosed prostate cancer was the first time since,” Weiner said.
Nick James, a prostate cancer expert at London’s Cancer Institute, said Biden Camp’s explanation of the diagnosis was “plausible, if a little unusual,” as blood tests could overlook certain cancers that produce less PSA.
“One drawback of PSA testing is that you may miss such tumors. Similarly, other tests he may have had, the prostate MRI, also has a false negative rate,” James told Al Jazeera.
Biden’s age and health were a major concern for voters during the presidency and reelection campaign that the former president abandoned after a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June.
Critics accused Biden and his team of hiding the extent of his mental and physical decline during his tenure.
On Tuesday, CNN anchor Jake Tupper and Aquios correspondent Alex Thompson released their new book, Original Sin, detailing their efforts to hide the deterioration of the Biden camp.
The book contains numerous accounts of Biden’s alleged decline, including an incident in which Hollywood actor George Clooney was allegedly unable to recognize during a fundraiser in 2024.