Following the announcement of former President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis, Dr. Tony Luongo at Tufts Medical Center explained what it could mean for the 82-year-old politician.
Prostate cancers are given a score called a Gleason score, on a scale of one to 10. Biden’s score came back as a nine, meaning he has a very aggressive form of cancer.
“The Gleason score is a score we use to categorize the risk of disease. The higher the score is, the more aggressive the cancer is. It’s a score from one to 10, and being a nine out of 10 clearly indicates quite a high risk of an aggressive cancer,” Luongo said.
The former president’s office said cancer cells have spread to Biden’s bones.
Luongo said cancer that spreads is harder to treat than localized cancer, as it can be more difficult for drugs to reach all of the tumors and completely root out the disease.
Biden’s office said his cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive. Doctors say certain hormone therapies could be helpful in this case.
“Testosterone, we regard it as the fuel of prostate cancer, and therapies that block its activity and/or its production is probably the most common form of treatment we give for this stage of disease,” Luongo said.
Medical experts say Biden is of what is considered advanced age, but a person’s cancer prognosis mainly depends on the patient’s physical fitness.
“Does the patient have any other significant medical problems we call comorbidities, such as heart disease, respiratory disease, neurologic disorders, that can impact our treatment decision,” Luongo said.
Luongo said he is confident the former president’s physicians will make the right choice for his treatment plan.
“Unfortunately it is a noncurative disease, but we have effective treatments that can treat it and control the progression of the disease,” he said.
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