What is the life expectancy of those diagnosed with prostate cancer? What it means for Biden

On Sunday former President Joe Biden’s personal office announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The 82-year-old only left office in January but he has made relatively few public appearances and there had been doubt about his health for some time. The prostate diagnosis is a serious one, with the statement confirming that it is an “aggressive form” of cancer.

“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement reads.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”

So what does this bombshell mean for the former President? The American Cancer Society reports that one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, typically coming in older men.

It is the second-highest cause of cancer in American men, behind lung cancer. However most men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer do not die from it. Today, here are though to be around 3.3 million US men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Advancements in treatment and better detection practices have seen the prostate cancer death rate fall by 50% since 1993. For Biden, all of this is good news. However the news that his cancer has spread to the bones is a major worry and suggests that he has a more advanced form of cancer, known as metastatic.

WebMD categorizes this as a ‘distant’ prostate cancer, which has a far higher fatality rate. For those with distant prostate cancer, around one-third will survive for five years after the diagnosis.

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