Biden and Prostate Cancer

 

By now you’ve heard that Joe Biden has prostate cancer. Even if you don’t know what this means, where the prostate is or what it does, you should realize that his cancer is serious and he will die without treatment.

What I know about Biden’s cancer is that it has a Gleason 9 score and is Grade 5, which means that it’s fast growing and aggressive. It is not the slow-growing kind that 80% of American men get. Apparently, he was having urinary problems, which is common for older men, and went to a doctor to get it checked out. 

The cancer has also metastasized in his bones which means that a cure is not in the picture. The good news is that his cancer is hormone-sensitive so it can be effectively treated by ADT anti-hormone drug, plus something else like a PARP inhibitor or an androgen receptor inhibitor, ARPI. And because of cancer research, there are also targeting therapy drugs that could also prolong his life.

I don’t know what diagnostic tests were done. I do know that the PSA, which is the first test used to check for prostate cancer, is not often done on men who are over the age of 70. Biden is 82. My primary physician, Dr. Farhana Khan, runs the PSA blood test every year as part of my physical. The year before I had cancer, my PSA was normal. A single year later, my PSA was high and a biopsy indicated it was Gleason 9 and Grade 5, the same numbers as Biden’s. Although I had no symptoms of any problem, if I had waited until I did, my aggressive cancer would probably have metastasized into my bones or lymph nodes. I was in my 60s at the time, and I thanked her profusely. There but for grace ...

Every cancer is serious, and it scares the shit out of us. It doesn’t matter if you have breast, prostate, pancreatic, ovarian, blood, or another kind of cancer, even if it’s successfully treated, you are going to have to live with the fear of it coming back for the rest of your life, because it does for many people. I’m beginning to think that “remission” is a more accurate term than “cure.”

If there is a history of prostate cancer in your family, or if you are African American, get tested before you’re 50. Mark Shanahan’s father had prostate cancer that he never talked about because older men don’t talk about cancers that involve their genitals. Younger men don’t talk about having prostate cancer with each other, either, so Shanahan had little idea about what he was in for when he was diagnosed. He was 48. I’ll probably be writing more about him in the future.

Give your father a PSA for Father’s Day. Well, not you personally, but if he hasn’t been tested in a year, make an appointment for him with his doctor. If his doctor won’t do a PSA, find a different doctor. This is your father’s life that we’re talking about.