Scott Adams, creator of comic strip Dilbert, says he has the same cancer as Joe Biden

NEW YORK – Scott Adams, the American author and cartoonist who created the comic strip Dilbert, said on his podcast on May 19 that he had the same kind of

aggressive prostate cancer as former US president Joe Biden, and that it had spread to his bones.

He added he had only months to live.

“My life expectancy is maybe this summer,” Adams, 67, said.

He is a supporter of United States President Donald Trump and has been critical of Mr Biden, but on May 19, he expressed his sympathy for the latter.

“I’d like to extend my respect and compassion and sympathy for the ex-president and his family because they’re going to be going through an especially tough time,” Adams said. “It’s a terrible disease – it’s going to get very painful for the president.”

It was not clear when Adams was diagnosed, but he said he decided to share the news after learning that Mr Biden had the same disease, in part because he hoped Mr Biden’s announcement would draw attention away from his own.

He added that he had kept quiet about it to prolong a sense of normality, adding: “Once you go public, you’re just the dying cancer guy.”

Adams said he was also wary of sharing his diagnosis because he wanted to avoid the kind of negative online attention Mr Biden has received since his office announced the news on May 18.

“One of the things I’ve been watching is how terrible the public is,” Adams said, adding that people had been cruel.

“There’s no sympathy for Joe Biden for a lot of people,” Adams said. “It’s hard to watch.”

Adams created Dilbert, which mocks office culture, in 1989, and it was syndicated around the world. In 2023, hundreds of newspapers dropped the cartoon after Adams said on his podcast that black people were “a hate group” and that white people should “just get the hell away” from them.

On his podcast at the time, he defended his remarks, saying that “you should absolutely be racist whenever it’s to your advantage”. He later said his comments were intended as hyperbole.

On May 19,

Mr Trump said he was surprised Mr Biden’s diagnosis had not been made public earlier,

seeming to suggest without evidence that the former president’s cancer had been covered up.

But Adams said on his podcast that it was possible for Mr Biden to not have been showing symptoms when he received a clean bill of health from his doctor in 2024.

Part of Adams’ sympathy for Mr Biden seemed to come from his own lived experience with the disease, which he called “intolerable”. Adams said he had been using a walker for months and was in constant pain.

Apart from recording his podcast, he said, he spends most of his days sleeping. As a California resident, he indicated he would be using aid-in-dying drugs, which are available to the terminally ill in the state.

“I don’t have good days,” he said. “Every day is a nightmare. And evening is even worse.” NYTIMES