(NewsNation) — Word of former President Joe Biden’s diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer immediately spawned speculation he may have known about the disease while still in the White House — maybe even as he was pursuing a second term in office — but others are pushing back and requesting empathy for the 82-year-old.
Urologist Dr. David Shusterman said Biden, who received the finest health care while in office, could have known for some time. He said the type of metastasizing cancer the former president has takes years to develop.
“This is what I typically would see in a VA hospital, where a patient hasn’t had medical attention in 10 years, presents to an emergency room with bone pain, and then they find that it’s metastatic prostate cancer,” Shusterman told “NewsNation Prime” on Sunday.
In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, Biden’s office said the cancer was spreading to his bones but could potentially be treated through hormone therapy. The statement said the disease was characterized with a Gleason score of 9, underscoring the aggressiveness of his case.
“The fact that we just find it at a Gleason nine is just pretty much unheard of in this day and age of medicine,” Shusterman said.
Timing curious, Leland Vittert says
Leland Vittert, host of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” said the timing of the Biden office’s announcement is curious, coming right before the release of a new book challenging the former president’s mental faculties while in the White House.
He, too, questioned whether the prostate cancer had been detected during Biden’s single term in office. Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump.
“Was this a case of sort of gross medical malpractice by the White House doctors to miss this or is this a case of the American public not being told something that would be very material?” Vittert said.
He added: “In Washington, it’s never the crime, it’s the cover-up. It’s what did people know and when did they know it? I can’t express the severity and the depth of what is about to transpire over the next week or two about Joe Biden.”
Leave politics out of it: GOP lawmaker, doctor
U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., a urologist who treats prostate cancer patients, said it’s indeed possible Biden did not know about his cancer until recently.
Even if Biden’s physicians measured his Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) levels, Murphy said, the levels could have been deceptively low. A rectal examination may not have been performed as a separate gauge, he added, saying a patient needs both.
“To say that he’s being diagnosed with this and it’s being hidden, I think, is wrong. We don’t need to make that leap right now,” Murphy said. “I think America needs to step back and stop making everything political.”
Murphy said he has seen patients live 10 or 15 years with the type of diagnosis Biden disclosed, while others have died within months. “It really depends on how well he responds to therapy,” he said.
Second-guessing not appropriate: 2 former Biden staffers
Two former Obama administration officials, Joel Rubin and Jarrod Bernstein, decried the second-guessing about Biden’s announcement. They said people should be more concerned about Biden’s fight against cancer.
Rubin praised Trump for issuing a statement on social media wishing Biden well.
“Health issues are part and parcel of human life,” Rubin said. “We have to focus on him as a man and what he achieved for our country.”
Bernstein said, “Whatever you want to say about Joe Biden, about how he ended his presidency, whether he should have gotten out sooner, he is an honorable man and served this country for five decades.”
