A Wake-Up Call From Joe Biden’s Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
Former US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill in Washington earlier this year ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration. Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Photographer: Will Oliver/EPAHi, it’s Jason in Melbourne. Joe Biden’s recent diagnosis of metastatic prostate cancer is more than just personal news — it’s a warning about the gaps in how we detect and manage one of the most common cancers in men. Before I get into that...
Prostate cancer has shifted significantly since 2011, when I first reported on the growing controversy surrounding its diagnosis. At the time, middle-aged men were routinely tested for prostate-specific antigen (PSA). A result above 4.0 nanograms per milliliter often led to a biopsy — a procedure involving a dozen needles passed through the rectal wall into the prostate to extract tissue samples.