The diagnosis of cancer in the late stage of the former US President Joe Biden has some medical specialists who wonder how the disease could be undetected towards the end of its presidency if his health was intensively examined.
In a statement on Sunday, BIDEN’s office announced, in which the 82-year-old prostate cancer was diagnosed and that it spreads on the bones. He was diagnosed with cancer in stage 4, which is considered the most advanced.
Prostate cancer cells are usually rated on a scale from 1 to 10 under the Gleason system.
This sorting system includes viewing cells under a microscope and the measurement of how abnormal they are and their probability of propagation. The higher the class, the more aggressive the cancer.
According to BIDEN’s office, he achieved a 9, which indicates that his cancer is one of the “most aggressive”.
The support of the former US President Joe Biden after announcing that he is fighting aggressive prostate cancer. While the disease is not curable, doctors say that treatments could help manage them for years.
“Of course it’s sad,” said Dr. Peter Black, director of the Vancouver prostate center, about bidens diagnosis.
“It is something that we can control for a few more years, but it will definitely have an impact on its quality of life and perhaps its durability.”
In view of the entire debate about Bidens Health during his presidency and the beginning of his second presidential campaign, before he retired last summer, the diagnosis has raised questions about why this was not caught earlier and what this means for long -term health.
What is prostate cancer and what are the symptoms?
The prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system, which is a liquid that is part of the sparrow, under which the bubble is. Cancer begins in the cells of the prostate and can grow into the nearby tissue. Cancer can also spread to other parts of the body, including the bladder, near lymph nodes, the bones and the brain, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.
“There is a wide range of prostate cancer,” said Black, who is also urologist at the Vancouver General Hospital. “From very early, relatively harmless illness to something that is a high risk and has already spread.”
The symptoms can vary from person to person, said Dr. James Dickinson, Professor of Family Medicine and Health Sciences of the Community at the University of Calgary.
But mostly, he said, there are no symptoms at all. Some unusual symptoms are problems with urination or blood in the urine.
“It can develop and spread quite far before someone notices,” he said.
How many people in Canada are it diagnosed?
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Canadian men and within this group the third -party cause of cancer in connection with cancer.
In 2024, the organization estimated that prostate cancer would be diagnosed in 27,900 men, whereby 5,000 are expected to die from the disease.
It is most common in older men and mainly in black men, including people in African and Caribbean ancestors, according to the organization.
How are people being scrolled on it?
There are two methods of screening for prostate cancer. Although research thinks everyone has their disadvantages.
There is the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which is a blood test that deals with the PSA levels-a substance of the prostate. With increasing age, the PSA values
Steps that are higher than normal could mean that there is a problem with the prostate, but cancer is not always the guilty. Other reasons could be an enlarged prostate or an inflamed prostate due to an infection.
There is also a digital rectal test (DRE), in which a health service provider enrolled finger inserted into the rectum and the feeling for unusual like lumps, like the cancer society.
But Black from the Vancouver Prostate Center said, while the health service providers often used this method in the past, they “showed away” it because it is not very helpful. As a result, PSA tests are used more often.
When is the screening recommended?
The prostate cancer screening was controversial, said Black and added that he would recommend PSA tests for otherwise healthy men between the ages of 50 and 75.
“I am a pro-screening because I see the advantage and I see what happens when we don’t screening,” he said.
People who are older than 70 or 75 are generally not actively examined, since experts say that the disease normally grows slowly.
The debate about the advantages of PSA tests means that not everyone is for it.
The Canadian Task Force for preventive health care against PSA screening recommended more than a decade ago because “The potential damage to the screening outweighs the advantages.”
It keeps this attitude and says that The Main problems are false positive results and overdiagnosis, as the review indicated. A positive PSA test result often leads to more tests such as a biopsy that harbors the risks of bleeding, infections and urinary incontinence.
At this point, the Task Force states that there are “no screening tests that are proven to identify prostate cancer”. However, it adds that several tests are being developed to improve the accuracy of the PSA screening.
In the meantime, the US-Task Force of US Prevention Services recommends that men between 55 and 69 years of age talk to their health service provider about whether they should be checked.
Why wasn’t Biden’s cancer discovered earlier?
Experts say because there are not many obvious symptoms, it is easy for prostate cancer to fly under the radar.
In February 2024 Biden had his last annual physical president. At that time his doctors said that “This year’s physical identification does not give any new concerns.”
Dr. Dana Rathkoopch, a medical oncologist of the New York Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said, although she does not know the details of the case, she does not believe that this diagnosis was overlooked during an earlier examination.
“Cancer cells are chaotic,” she said in An interview with CBS News. “There are many people who have access to (the) highest level of care and are subjected to regular screening and still diagnosed advanced diseases.”
Black said if bidges had been tested, it was possible that his PSA values
“Sometimes the aggressive prostate cancer types don’t make that much PSA,” he said.
What does the treatment include?
Prostate cancer, which is located in the early stages and is not spreading, is probably only monitored, said the Dickinson of the University of Calgary. It could not be harmful, he said, and so it would not be helpful for the patient.
In the meantime, for cases with a higher risk in which the PSA is high, but cancer is limited to the prostate, surgery or radiation is usually recommended.
In cases where the disease has spread, he said that radiation is often used next to hormone therapy.
Hormone therapy lowers the amount of certain hormones in the body would usually grow prostate cancer cells. In this way, prostate cancer can shrink more slowly or become slower.
Dr. Peter Black, a urologist and director of the Vancouver prostate center, speaks about the diagnosis of prostate cancer of the prostate cancer of the US President Joe Biden.
This is the type of treatment that is examined for bidges, and while Black said she usually reacts at the beginning, it is a question of how long it will continue to work.
Without knowing all the details of bidens case, Black said that men with a similar diagnosis live about five years with current treatments.
The five -year survival rate for people who are in the first three stages of illness is almost 100 percent. According to Statistics Canada.
However, if it was diagnosed in level 4, if the cancer has spread beyond the prostate, the survival rate for the next five years will drop to 41 percent.
