TAMPA, Fla. — The office of Former President Joe Biden announced on Sunday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
His office said he was having symptoms, and doctors found a small nodule on his prostate.
ABC Action News spoke with Dr. Yamoah from Moffitt Cancer Center about the diagnosis.
WATCH: Local doctor weighs in on prostate cancer treatments following Former President Biden's diagnosis
He told ABC Action News the most common site for prostate cancer to spread is to the bone. It’s often known as the second home for prostate cancer.
We also know that Biden’s cancer has a Gleason score of 9 out of 10. Dr. Yamoah explained the Gleason score is how doctors grade prostate cancer, and it's based on how the cells look under a microscope. The former President’s office said the Gleason score of 9 represents a more aggressive form of the disease, but the cancer appears to be hormone sensitive, which allows for effective management.
ABC Action News asked Dr. Yamoah to explain what that means.
“Prostate cancer cells feed off testosterone, the male hormone, so the way to think about it is that the male hormones do not cause the cancer, but it fuels the cancer. So, when you recognize you have mostly intermediate risk, high risk, or metastatic disease, the first level of therapy is anti-testosterone, which is hormone therapy. What it does is it cuts off the nutrition, the supply of nutrients to the prostate cancer cells, because they feed off the testosterone. So you starve them, and by starvation, you are able to actually weaken the cells, and then you can add on other therapies to destroy the rest of the cancer cells. So, the best news is when you have cancer cells [that are] hormone sensitive. Meaning that they are responding well to the hormones, and they are not hormone-insensitive because that’s when you have to come up with other techniques that can be a little challenging to treat,” explained Dr. Yamoah.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime.
A PSA test can detect signs of prostate cancer, but is not routinely recommended by major guidelines for all men over the age of 70.
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