Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel said Sunday on the “Fox Report” that he was “taken aback” at the “very advanced” state of former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis.
Doctors diagnosed Biden Friday with a form of prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bone, according to a Sunday release from his personal office. Siegel said that based on information contained in the release, he was “very, very concerned” for Biden after Fox News host Jon Scott read the statement to him.
A Gleason score indicates how fast the prostate cancer is spreading and is determined by adding the grades of the two most prominent patterns of mutated cells in a biopsy, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Biden’s cancer has a Gleason score of nine out of a maximum ten, according to the release from his office.
“Gleason nine, Jon, means that it’s a very aggressive form of cancer and group five means that within that, it’s the most aggressive type. That means it has the highest risk of spread, which obviously he has had,” Siegel told Scott. “He is presenting with urinary symptoms and I want the viewer to know that most of the time, prostate cancer will be asymptomatic. When it reaches the point you’re already having urinary symptoms, that’s also a sign that it’s pretty far advanced.” (RELATED: President Trump, Melania Issue Statement On Joe Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis)
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Prostate cancer that has spread to the bone is typically considered Stage 4B cancer with a survival rate of about 37% over five years from diagnosis, according to the Mayo Clinic. Siegel also expressed curiosity as to how the former president’s illness was apparently not discovered in a 2024 prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, a blood test commonly used to detect prostate cancer.
“One of the questions on everyone’s mind, and you just heard this from the reporter is, what about last year’s PSA?” Siegel said “You know, this was found by physical examination by prostate exam. A lot of times we find an elevation in prostate specific antigen, a PSA, then we go after it, get an MRI. I mean, he must’ve had the best possible care here. I’m just, I’m a little taken aback it’s this far advanced and very, very concerned about it.”
“This is a former president of the United States,” Scott said. “He’s supposed to be getting, as you said, the best medical care in the world and yet, you know, just a few months after he leaves office, this prostate cancer is advanced enough that it has metastasized to the bone. That’s, well, that’s just not good.”
Siegel said that while he used the PSA test on his patients over the age of 45, it was possible for prostate cancer to develop with a low PSA score. He also said there was a chance that Biden’s cancer could be treatable with hormone therapy to reduce testosterone, which can fuel prostate cancer.
“It may very well be that he’s hormone responsive and that’s what we’re all hoping and praying for here. We are looking to save the radiation oncologist says are they going to give radiation? They’ve advanced radiation therapy dramatically for prostate cancer,” Siegel said. “They can target it, they can use the seeds, it has less side effects than it used to and the same thing with robotic prostatectomy, it’s unbelievable now at getting the prostate out. A lot of times the prostate would be taken out they would give radiation and then give the hormone therapy. They are not saying that at this point.”
NYU Langone urologist Dr. Herbert Lepore told Reuters that treatments for advanced prostate cancer can allow men with metastatic prostate cancer to live at least five to ten years with the disease. Dr. Chris George, the medical director of Northwestern Medical Network’s cancer program, told the outlet that even though the metastasis means the cancer is incurable, treatments could keep the disease under control.
Biden’s previous medical history includes two operations to treat brain aneurysms and a pulmonary embolism in 1988, according to media reports at the time.
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