Questions emerge over Biden’s cancer diagnosis, decision to run

Washington – The revelation that former President Biden has advanced prostate cancer generated more questions than answers on Monday, which caused a debate between oncological community experts on the likely progression of his illness and resurfacing of concerns in Washington about his decision last year to re -election.

Biden’s private office said on Sunday afternoon that it was diagnosed earlier in the week with an “aggressive form” of cancer that had already spread to its bones, after the urinary symptoms led to the discovery of a nodule on its prostate.

But it was not specified if Biden, 82, had tested his specific antigens of the prostate, known as PSA levels, during his presidency – and if so, if these results had indicated a high risk of cancer while he was still in power or during his re -election campaign.

The diagnosis of Biden arrives at a difficult time for the former president, while control develops on his decision to present himself for a second term last year – and if it cost the Democrats La Maison Blanche. Biden finally abandoned the race after a devastating debate performance with Donald Trump expressed naked general concerns about his age and his health, leaving his successor to the Democratic ticket – Vice -President Kamala Harris – shortly to carry out his own campaign.

A book that should publish this week entitled “Original Sin”, by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, details the efforts of Biden aid to protect the effects of his aging from the public and the press. The diagnosis of cancer has only intensified him the control over Biden’s health and the questions as to if he and his team were honest on this subject with the public.

“I think these conversations will occur,” said David Axelrod, former principal advisor to President Obama.

President Trump, asked questions about the diagnosis of Biden at an oval office event on Monday, said that it was “a very, very sad situation” and that he felt “bad about it”.

But he also asked why cancer was not captured earlier and why the public was not informed earlier, linking the situation to questions he has long raised about the mental ability of Biden to serve as president.

PSA tests are generally not recommended for men over the age of 70 due to the risk of the results of false positives or associated treatments causing more harm than good for older patients, who are more likely to die from other causes first.

But the annual physique for seated presidents – in particular the age of Biden – are more complete than those of the private people. And a failure to test high levels of PSA could have missed the progression of the disease.

A letter from the doctor from the Blanche de Biden from February from last year does not mention PSA tests, unlike The most recent letter Detailing the results of Trump’s latest physics, which refers to a normal measurement. Biden’s current assistants did not respond to requests for comments on the question of whether his office would detail his history of diagnostic tests in more detail.

Even if his doctors had tested the PSA levels at the time, the results may not have taken an aggressive form of cancer, experts said.

Some field specialists have declared that it was possible, if it is rare, that Biden cancer emerges and spread from his last physics in the White House. About 10% of newly diagnosed patients with prostate cancer are with an advanced form of the disease that has metastasized in other parts of the body.

Dr. Mark Litwin, president of UCLA Urology, said that it was in the nature of the aggressive prostate cancers to grow quickly. “It is therefore likely that this tumor started more recently,” he said.

Litwin said he has no doubt that Biden would have been detected for high PSA levels. But, he said, he could be part of the patients whose cancers do not produce high levels of PSA or whose more aggressive cancers develop quickly and metastize in a few months.

“The fact that he suffers from a metastatic disease during the diagnosis, for me, as an expert in the region and as a clinician who takes care of the guys with prostate cancer, says that he is unhappy,” said Litwin.

Litwin and other USC, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Cedars -Sinai and Dana -Farber Cancer Institute prostate cancer experts have all said the diagnosis of Biden – at least based on information accessible to the public – was not incredibly unusual and similar to diagnoses received by older American men.

They said that he and his doctors would have absolutely discussed the test of his PSA levels, given his high level of care as president. But they also said that it would have been in the best medical practices for him to decide with these doctors to stop being tested given his age.

Dr. Howard Sandler, president of the ONCOLOGY RADIATION DEPARTMENT OF CEDARS-SINAI, said he saw three potential explanations for the diagnosis of Biden.

The first is that Biden and his doctors made the decision “to no longer project, which would be good in the norm of care” given the age of Biden, he said.

A second is that Biden’s was tested, and its PSA level “was raised, perhaps not radically but a little high, but they said:` `Well, we are not going to study there ”,” still because of Biden’s age, said Sandler.

The third, which, according to Sandler, was “less likely”, is that the PSA of Biden was verified “and was good, but it ended up with aggressive prostate cancer which does not produce a lot of PSA” and was therefore not captured.

Zeke Emanuel, an oncologist being a vice-premium for global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and a former health policy official in the Biden administration, Biden has probably had cancer for “more than several years”.

“He did not develop it in the last 100, 200 days. He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021,” said Emanuel.

But Litwin, who said he was a friend of Emanuel, said most men in the 1970s or 80s had a kind of prostate cancer, even if she is just “sink” – there but not particularly aggressive or quickly propagated – and it is unlikely that it is the cause of their death.

He said that Biden may well have a similar form of cancer in his prostate for a long time, but that he did not think that the aggressive form that metastasé would have been there as long as Emanuel seemed to suggest.

Departing from Rome on the Air Force Two, vice-president JD Vance told journalists that he sent his best wishes to the former president, but expressed his concern that his recent diagnosis stressed the concerns concerning the state of Biden who darkened his presidency.

“That the right time to have this conversation is now or in the future, we must really be honest to find out if the former president was able to do the work,” said Vance. “I don’t think he was healthy. In some ways, I blame him less that I blame people around him. ”

Trump’s medical team also faced transparency issues.

When Trump was diagnosed with Covid-19 during his first mandate, at the height of the pandemic, he was closer to death than his white house Recognized at the time. And his doctors and assistants regularly use superlatives to describe the health of the 78 -year -old president, with Karoline Leavitt, his White House press secretary, qualifying as “perfect” on Monday.

“Cancer touches us all,” published Biden on social networks alongside a photo with his wife, Jill Biden, in his first remarks on his diagnosis.

“Like many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are the strongest in broken places,” he added. “Thank you for raising us with love and support.”