Ex-President Joe Biden's prostate cancer places him in a not-very-exclusive club of those who have had it or have it. I am one of them.
Biden's cancer is stage 4, not stage 9 as President Trump claimed the other day. The cancer has spread to Biden's bones. Advances in the treatment of prostate cancer of the last few years are profound, and life is now measured in years, not months. But one supposes that, in making his "stage 9" comment, Dr. Donald was speaking to the seriousness of the diagnosis. And, yes, it is serious.
Being a prostate cancer statistic — I don't use the word survivor to describe my particular situation, I did not suffer and came out well on the other end — and the author of a book on the subject (Prostate Monologues, if you're interested), I take particular interest in prostate cancer stories. I am not a doctor, which is how I begin every email or discussion about prostate cancer, but I know something about the subject.
This year, it is expected that there will be about 314,000 new cases of prostate cancer, and there will be about 36,000 deaths. However, large percentage of men with prostate cancer will survive it, and in many cases, die of something else. I probably — emphasis on probably — would've survived my prostate cancer. My Gleason score, which is how the severity of the cancer is rated, indicated that it was not the kind of aggressive cancer that necessarily needed to be treated.
According to statistics, I probably — again, emphasis on probably — could've lived with it for another 20 years, but decided to have it removed via robotic surgery. Why? Well, I was 62 at the time, and what if I wanted to live past 82? Or 85? Or 90, for that matter? My first grandchild had just come into the picture and maybe I wanted to see him graduate from college, and anyway, I couldn't stop thinking about the cancer in my body so I said, "Let's get rid of it."
The flipside of prostate cancer intervention, either surgical or radiological, is that the patient might emerge with difficulties in continence and sexual function. When I decided upon surgery, in fact, it was at the height of the movement not to even get tested for prostate cancer, for fear that unnecessary surgeries would outweigh the number of deaths. In fact, the United States Preventative Task Force Service, which figures into the Biden story, had given the PSA test a D rating, which was tantamount to saying, "Don't do it." Well, what happened? Prostate deaths went back up. The USPTFS has since amended its recommendation that men over 70 not be treated for prostate cancer, the reason being that surgery is risky for men that old and that chances of dying for another reason other than prostate cancer go up.
So, if the Biden medical people are telling the truth, he did exactly what he was supposed to. He reportedly got tested when he was 70, didn't have prostate cancer, and didn't get tested after that. By the time he had symptoms, the cancer was out of control. Entirely possible.
It's predictable that Biden's cancer has become politicized. But no matter how much everyone claims to know, only Biden, his family, and his medical team truly know what happened.
My takeaway from this is what it has been since I went through my own prostate cancer. Men, get the PSA test, particularly when you're between the ages of 40 and 70. If you have what some consider a manageable cancer, then it will be your decision as to whether you want to get it treated.
I close with a reminder that I am not a doctor, but I know something about this subject.
