FORMER US PRESIDENT Joe Biden will face his cancer diagnosis “with his trademark resolve and grace,” Barack Obama said after Biden’s office announced he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of the disease.

On Friday, the 82-year-old Democrat – whose son Beau Biden died of cancer in 2015 – was diagnosed with the disease after he experienced urinary symptoms and a prostate nodule was found, a statement from his office said.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” the statement continued.

In a post on social media, Obama said he and his wife, Michelle, are thinking of the “entire Biden family”.

“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe,” said Obama.

Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family. Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 18, 2025

“We pray for a fast and full recovery.”

In the wake of Beau Biden’s death due to an aggressive form of brain cancer, then-president Obama launched a “cancer moonshot” bid to corral the disease in the United States, tasking Biden, then his vice president, with leading the effort.

“It’s personal for me,” said Biden at the time.

“But it’s also personal for nearly every American, and millions of people around the world. We all know someone who has had cancer, or is fighting to beat it.”

The administration of current US president Donald Trump cut cancer research funding by 31% in the first three months of 2025 compared to the same period last year, a Senate report showed earlier this month.

Trump took to his Truth social media platform to say that he and his wife Melania were “saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis”.

“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery,” Trump added.

Meanwhile, Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, described Biden as a “fighter”.

Doug and I are saddened to learn of President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis. We are keeping him, Dr. Biden, and their entire family in our hearts and prayers during this time. Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and… pic.twitter.com/gG5nB0GMPp

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) May 18, 2025

“I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” she added.

2024 election

Biden left office in January this year as the oldest serving US president in history, and was dogged by questions, including from Democratic voters, over his health and age for much of his term – and whether he could handle the office’s demands.

In July last year, he was forced to drop his re-election bid after a disastrous debate against Trump in which fears about his decline and cognitive abilities came surging to the fore.

Harris stepped in, and while her support rocketed after she stepped up to the plate, she eventually lost to Trump.

Biden, who beat Trump at the polls in 2020, maintains that he could have won the 2024 election too, but questions have long swirled over the responses of staff and key Democrats to his decline.

These questions have flared with the imminent release of a book titled “Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again”.

The book will be released tomorrow and it’s penned by CNN journalist Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson of Axios.

Online news site Axios said the book will “reveal the White House’s determination to conceal the reality of Biden’s condition, at the risk of his own health”.

Cancer diagnosis

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men, with the American Cancer Society reporting one in eight men in the US are diagnosed with it over their lifetime.

While it is highly treatable if discovered early, it is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, the organization said.

Hormone therapy is a common treatment that can shrink tumours and slow cancer growth, but is not a cure.

According to the statement, Biden’s cancer was found to have “a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5).”

Prostate cancer that looks “very abnormal” is assigned the highest rating, Grade 5, according to the American Cancer Society.

The Gleason Score goes up to 10, indicating the seriousness of Biden’s disease.

-With additional reporting from © AFP 2025