Ex-US president Joe Biden thanks supporters for ‘love’ after cancer diagnosis

WASHINGTON - Former US president Joe Biden expressed his gratitude to Americans for their “love and support”, after he said he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

“Cancer touches us all. Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places,” the 82-year-old Biden posted on X, with a photograph of him and his wife Jill Biden.

“Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”

Mr Biden has been diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, and is reviewing treatment options, his office said on May 18.

The Democrat – whose son Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015 – was diagnosed with the cancer on May 16, after he experienced urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found, a statement from his office said.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management. (Mr Biden) and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” it continued.

US President Donald Trump, 78, who has long derided Mr Biden over his aged demeanour and cognitive abilities, said he was saddened by the news.

“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” Republican Trump said on Truth Social, referring to Mr Biden’s wife, Dr Jill Biden.

“Joe is a fighter,” said former vice-president Kamala Harris in a post on social media platform X. She had stepped in as the Democratic nominee in the battle against Mr Trump after Mr Biden

dropped out of the 2024 presidential election

.

“I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership. We are hopeful for a full and speedy recovery,” she continued.

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men, with one in eight men in the United States diagnosed with it over their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society.

While it is highly treatable if discovered early, prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in men, the society said.

Hormone therapy is a common treatment that can shrink tumours and slow cancer growth, but is not a cure.

According to the statement, Mr Biden’s cancer was found to have “a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5)”. Prostate cancer that looks “very abnormal” is assigned the highest rating, Grade 5, according to the American Cancer Society.

The Gleason Score goes up to 10, indicating the seriousness of Mr Biden’s disease.

‘Watch me’

Mr Biden left office in January 2025 as the oldest serving US president in history, and was dogged by questions, including from Democratic voters,

over his health and age for much of his term

.

His response was a brisk “Watch me.” But in July 2024, he was forced to drop his re-election bid after

a disastrous debate against Mr Trump

in which fears about the decline in his health and cognitive abilities came surging to the fore.

Support surged for Ms Harris as she stepped up to the plate, but she eventually lost to Mr Trump.

Mr Biden, who beat Mr Trump at the polls in 2020, maintains he could have won the 2024 election, too, but questions have long swirled over the responses of staff and key Democrats to evident signs of his decline.

The questions have flared with the

impending May 20 release of

the book

, Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, And His Disastrous Choice To Run Again, by CNN journalist Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios.

Last week,

a newly published recording

of Mr Biden speaking hesitantly and struggling to remember key events and dates fuelled renewed debate over his mental capabilities while still in office.

Mr Biden’s life has been marked by personal tragedy. In 1972, his first wife and baby daughter were killed in a car crash, days after he was elected a US senator at the age of 29.

He underwent surgery twice in 1988 for brain aneurysms.

In 2023, he had a skin lesion – a basal cell carcinoma – removed from his chest. He had previously had non-melanoma skin cancers removed.

Mr Biden’s son Beau died at the age of 46 of an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2015, a tragedy which touched many Americans.

Under then President Barack Obama, the US launched a “cancer moonshot” bid to bring the disease under control. Mr Obama tasked Mr Biden, then his vice-president, with leading the effort.

“It’s personal for me,” Mr Biden said at the time.

“But it’s also personal for nearly every American, and millions of people around the world. We all know someone who has had cancer, or is fighting to beat it.”

Mr Obama said on May 18 in a statement on X: “Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe.

“I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace.”

Mr Trump’s administration cut cancer research funding by 31 per cent in the first three months of 2025, compared with the same period in 2024, a Senate report showed earlier in May.

Americans in the US capital Washington lamented the diagnosis to AFP on May 18.

Ms Ariale Booker, a Washington resident who said her mother and grandmother both died of cancer, described it as “heartbreaking”.

“I think that’s just really sad,” she told AFP. “His last years, his life’s going to be really hard.” AFP