EVEN AS HE FIGHTS CANCER, BIDEN OWES AMERICANS AN EXPLANATION. Former President Joe Biden‘s announcement that he is suffering from advanced metastatic prostate cancer landed awkwardly amid a debate about Biden’s physical and mental infirmity during his years as president. All of a sudden, people who were arguing that it was a scandal that Biden served when he was simply not up to the job stopped talking about that and instead wished the former president a speedy recovery.
But the news created a new question. Did Biden tell the truth about his health when he was president? Did he know he had cancer and conceal it from the public?
Taken together, the opinions of medical experts were confusing. Prostate cancer is usually slow growing, they all agreed. But there can be, in very rare circumstances, fast-growing and very aggressive prostate cancers. Nevertheless, even if Biden’s cancer is a fast-moving one, many were skeptical that, had Biden had a regular prostate-specific antigen screening test and an examination at his last physical as president, in February 2024, the disease would not have shown up then. It’s hard to accept the idea that Biden could have had a normal examination result in February 2024 and then be diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to his bones by May 2025.
On the other hand, the New York Times, citing a Johns Hopkins prostate cancer specialist, reported that extremely aggressive cases do exist and can “arise without giving any hint of their presence on the PSA.” The New York Times noted that many of Dr. Otis Brawley’s patients “have been diligent about regular prostate screening and yet … they had advanced disease. [Brawley] said he’s seen a half dozen men like that in the past year alone.”
And then there is the disagreement about how late into life men should have the PSA test done. Some say they should stop at age 70 and that Biden had “aged out” of taking the test. Some say healthy, active men should keep having the PSA done beyond 70. Whatever the best opinion is on that issue, many observers find it very, very hard to believe that doctors for the president of the United States would not do the test, whatever Biden’s age. Nevertheless, a Biden spokesman says he last got the PSA test in 2014 and until last Friday “had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer.”
The testing part seems incredible, given that the patient was the vice president and later the president. But it has led to the key question of all this: What was Biden’s condition during that time? It was bad enough that his key aides were trying to conceal his physical and mental decline from voters at a time when he still planned to run for reelection at age 82 and serve until age 86. But if Biden had cancer on top of it all and either did not know, because his doctor failed to perform a basic test, or did know and did not reveal it to the public, it seems absolutely astonishing.
One way Biden could help clear things up would be to authorize his physician during his time in the White House, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to discuss the former president’s physical examinations and treatment. O’Connor should personally confirm the details of Biden’s condition, testing, and treatment. Yes, things like this are private for most people. But not for a president, and especially not for a former president who left office under a cloud of suspicion about many aspects of his health and abilities.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
