WASHINGTON (AP) — Mississippi officials reacted after President Joe Biden’s office announced on Sunday that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The finding came after the 82-year-old reported urinary symptoms, which led doctors to discover a nodule on his prostate. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management,” his office said. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson, a prominent national Democrat who represents much of the Mississippi Delta and the City of Jackson, offered a heartfelt message for the former president following his diagnosis.
“Joe, my brother and my friend: You’ve led with strength and heart through every storm. Now we stand with you,” Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District representative wrote in a social media post Sunday. “Praying for healing, peace, and continued courage. You are not alone.”
In a social media post on Sunday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves wrote that he and Mississippi First Lady Elee Reeves “are saddened to hear of former President Biden’s diagnosis.”
“We are praying for God’s grace and healing hand to be placed upon him and his family during this difficult time,” the Republican governor wrote.
‘Cancer Touches Us All’
In a post on X on Monday morning, Biden posted a photo of himself and his wife, Jill Biden, and wrote: “Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what’s known as a Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively.
Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.
When prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it often spreads to the bones. Metastasized cancer is much harder to treat than localized cancer because it can be hard for drugs to reach all the tumors and completely root out the disease.
However, when prostate cancers need hormones to grow, as in Biden’s case, they can be susceptible to treatment that deprives the tumors of hormones.
Outcomes have improved in recent decades and patients can expect to live with metastatic prostate cancer for four or five years, said Dr. Matthew Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center.
“It’s very treatable, but not curable,” Smith said. “Most men in this situation would be treated with drugs and would not be advised to have either surgery or radiation therapy.”
Many political leaders sent Biden their wishes for his recovery.
‘Joe is a Fighter’
President Donald Trump, a longtime political opponent, posted on social media that he was saddened by the news and “we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, said on social media that she was keeping him in her family’s “hearts and prayers during this time.”
“Joe is a fighter—and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” Harris wrote.
Former President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with Biden, his former vice president, lauding his toughness. “Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace,” Obama wrote on social media.
The health of Biden was a dominant concern among voters during his time as president. After a calamitous debate performance in June while seeking reelection, Biden abandoned his bid for a second term. Harris became the nominee and lost to Trump, a Republican who returned to the White House after a four-year hiatus.
But in recent days, Biden rejected concerns about his age despite reporting in the new book “Original Sin” by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that alleged aides shielded the public from the extent of his decline while serving as president.
In February 2023, Biden had a skin lesion removed from his chest that was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer. And in November 2021, he had a polyp removed from his colon that was a benign, but potentially pre-cancerous lesion.
In 2022, Biden made a “cancer moonshot” one of his administration’s priorities with the goal of halving the cancer death rate over the next 25 years. The initiative was a continuation of his work as vice president to address a disease that had killed his older son, Beau, who died from brain cancer in 2015.
The former president, when announcing the goal to halve the cancer death rate, said this could be an “American moment to prove to ourselves and, quite frankly, the world that we can do really big things.”
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Associated Press writer Jon Fahey in New York contributed to this report.
Mississippi Free Press News Editor Ashton Pittman made additions to this report.
