Former US President Biden diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer 

Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his office has said in a statement.

Biden was seen last week by doctors after urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone, the statement released on Sunday said.

“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”, it added.

The health of the 82-year old Biden was a key concern among US voters during his time as president and became more so during the 2024 campaign .

After a calamitous debate performance in June, Biden abandoned his bid for a second term. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee and lost to Donald Trump, who returned to the White House after a four-year hiatus.

Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist,  was also heavily criticized in some quarters at home and overseas, for his unconditional support for Israel in its punishing Gaza war after the Hamas-led October 7 attack, and for not using Washington’s leverage to rein in US ally Israel, as death and devastation wracked Palestinians in Gaza.

In recent days, Biden rejected concerns about his age despite reporting in the new book “Original Sin” that aides had shielded the public from the extent of his cognitive decline while serving as president.

Prostate cancers are given a score called a Gleason score that measures, on a scale of 1 to 10, how the cancerous cells look compared with normal cells. Biden’s score of 9 suggests his cancer is among the most aggressive.

When prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it often spreads to the bones. Metastasised cancer is much harder to treat than localized cancer because it can be hard for drugs to reach all the tumours and completely root out the disease.