Former President Joe Biden’s announcement that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer has ignited a firestorm of questions about when the disease was first detected — and debate whether Biden’s White House conspired to hide the dangerous diagnosis from the American public during his presidency.
Biden’s office revealed Sunday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones. The statement described the cancer with a Gleason score of 9, indicating high aggressiveness, and said treatment would include hormone therapy.
Medical experts immediately raised concerns about how such an advanced cancer could have gone undetected in a former president who should have received top-tier medical care.
“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,” urologist Dr. David Shusterman told NewsNation.
Shusterman added, “The fact that we just find it at a Gleason nine is just pretty much unheard of in this day and age of medicine.”
Dr. Chris George, medical director of Northwestern Health Network’s cancer program, said the late-stage diagnosis was troubling.
“What concerns me … is the fact that the cancer has been reported to have already spread beyond the prostate to the bones. And when the cancer has spread to the bones, that makes it stage 4, that means that the cancer is not curable,” George said.
Several medical experts pointed out that prostate cancer is typically detected through routine PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) blood tests that would have been detected years ago.
“For even with the most aggressive form, it is a 5-7 year journey without treatment before it becomes metastatic. Meaning, it would be malpractice for this patient to show up and be first diagnosed with metastatic disease in May 2025,” said Dr. Steven Quay, a former faculty member at Stanford University’s School of Medicine.
“It is highly likely he was carrying a diagnosis of prostate cancer throughout his White House tenure and the American people were uninformed,” he said.
Dr. Howard Forman, a professor at Yale University, echoed these concerns.
“It is inconceivable that this was not being followed before he left the Presidency. Gleason grade 9 would have had an elevated PSA level for some time before this diagnosis,” he said. “And he must have had a PSA test numerous times before. This is odd.”
The timing of the announcement has also raised eyebrows. It came just before the release of “Original Sin,” a book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’ Alex Thompson that examines Biden’s health issues. The book reveals that Biden’s aides considered putting him in a wheelchair due to spine deterioration but deemed it politically too risky.
Congressman Ronny Jackson, who previously served as White House physician under President Trump, directly accused Biden’s medical team of prioritizing politics over healthcare.
“Care at the White House should be second to none. Unbelievable this was missed, but the truth is, his physician was more concerned about assisting with the political cover up than providing world class medical care,” Jackson wrote on social media.
Leland Vittert, host of NewsNation’s “On Balance,” questioned whether the public was kept in the dark.
“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 asked.
“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,” he said.
Indeed, some critics have pointed out that previous Biden statements that he’d been diagnoised with cancer, but were dismissed as “gaffes” by the White House.
Take a look —
REMEMBER WHEN BIDEN SAID HE HAD CANCER BACK IN 2022.pic.twitter.com/eDSyflV84T
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) May 18, 2025
Conservative commentator Benny Johnson called it “the most dangerous cover-up in the history of the presidency,” adding, “You’re telling me that the best doctors and testing on earth did not find Biden’s cancer in all these years of testing? Was every medical report a lie? For how long? Bulls**t. Absolute scandal. They knew. They lied. They hid it. For power.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump offered support, stating, “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis. We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
Former Obama administration officials Joel Rubin and Jarrod Bernstein urged restraint. “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 added, “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.”
Biden, 82, was forced out of the 2024 presidential race after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump.
His mental well-being had been a subject of intense scrutiny throughout his presidency, and more information on the extent of the White House cover-up of his health deterioration has since come to the surface.