Post By : 2025-05-20"

President Biden has metastatic prostate cancer. Here’s what you should know"

President Joe Biden’s diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer has understandably raised concerns and questions: How long has he had cancer, how will he be treated, and what is his prognosis?

As a urologist, I regularly diagnose prostate cancer in my patients, and each time I share the diagnosis with them and their family, it’s never easy. Over time, I’ve learned the importance of keeping conversations simple and straightforward — avoiding sugar-coating and instead using data, statistics and personal experience to help patients begin their cancer journey.

As his public announcement draws attention to this type of cancer, it’s a reminder to regularly check on your own health. Here’s what you need to know about metastatic prostate cancer: how it’s detected, what treatments look like, and why early screening remains essential for men’s health.

How Biden’s cancer was diagnosed

The office of former President Joe Biden, shown here on January 16 at Joint Base Myers-Henderson Hall in Virginia, has announced was he has metastatic prostate cancer. 

Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

The former president’s diagnosis began after he experienced “increasing urinary symptoms,” his office said, and a prostate nodule was discovered.

The detection of a prostate nodule likely happened during a digital rectal examination (DRE). During a DRE, a doctor gently inserts a finger into the rectum to examine the prostate gland, located directly in front of the rectal wall. A healthy prostate typically feels smooth and symmetrical. A prostate nodule, however, feels firm, raised, and irregular — similar in texture to your knuckles.

Not all prostate nodules indicate cancer — many are benign and associated with conditions enlarged prostate (BPH), or prostate stones (calcifications). However, in Biden’s case, further testing — likely including a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test, imaging and biopsy — confirmed prostate cancer. Additional scans revealed that his cancer had spread to his bones, classifying it as high-risk, aggressive metastatic prostate cancer.

Understanding metastatic prostate cancer

“Metastatic” means the cancer cells have spread beyond the original location (the prostate gland) into other areas — most commonly bones and lymph nodes. Biden’s cancer has specifically spread to his bones, placing him among the 5% to 7% of prostate cancer cases in the United States that are metastatic at initial diagnosis. While this percentage seems small, it represents a significant number given that over 300,000 men in the US and approximately 1.5 million worldwide are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year.

Early-stage prostate cancer carries an excellent prognosis, with nearly a 100% five-year survival rate. However, when prostate cancer is metastatic at diagnosis, the five-year survival rate drops sharply to around 37%. Importantly, these survival rates are statistical averages, and individual outcomes vary considerably based on overall health, age, cancer aggressiveness, and how well a patient responds to treatment.

For Biden — and all prostate cancer patients — this diagnosis marks the beginning of a highly personalized journey. It remains impossible right now to accurately answer the question, “How long do I have?” Which of course is the question everyone wants answered.