Former President Joe Biden last underwent a Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test, one of the most common ways to screen for prostate cancer, in 2014 while he was serving as Barack Obama’s vice president, a spokesperson for his office announced Tuesday.
“Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer,” the rep went on in response to speculation that the 82-year-old had been secretly diagnosed while in office.
Sunday’s announcement that Biden had an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones shocked longtime members of the Democrat’s inner circle, some of whom expressed befuddlement to The Post that the disease could have advanced to such a stage without being detected.
White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, a longtime friend of the Bidens, made no mention of performing a PSA in his report on Biden’s most recent physical exam while president, conducted in February 2024.
“I think the likely scenario, knowing Kevin O’Connor pretty well, is that they had a discussion on what a PSA test is, and they decided not to do one because it would likely be elevated and cause a story, since a lot of older men have high PSAs that are false positives,” a long-serving aide to Biden mused Monday.
“A blood test has a paper trail. They probably just didn’t do the test. I think it would leak if he had a PSA test they tried to bury.”
“What’s ironic,” this person added, “is that if they didn’t give the president a PSA test because of the potential for optics of a possible false positive, that decision is ultimately going to lead to his death because they could have caught it earlier.”
A former Biden White House aide also cast doubt on the idea of a secret prostate cancer diagnosis, saying: “Frankly, residence staff talk. It would have gotten out … Also, Doc [O’Connor] isn’t discreet. Yes, he’s a doctor, but he’s always chatting.”
Both the American Academy of Family Physicians and the US Preventative Services Task Force recommend against prostate cancer screenings for men 70 and older. Biden turned 70 on Nov. 20, 2012.
“Men aged 70 years and older have a higher rate of prostate cancer, but because they are more likely to die from a cause other than their prostate cancer, the potential benefit screening is diminished,” the AAFP’s guidance reads on its website. “Older men experience more harms from screening, including increased rates of false positives, overdiagnosis, and increased risk of harms from biopsy and treatment.”
Follow the latest on Joe Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis:
- Ex-Biden aides suspect another cover-up after former president’s prostate cancer diagnosis
- Trump accuses Biden allies of ‘not telling the facts’ after cancer diagnosis: ‘Dangerous for our country’
- It’s highly unlikely Biden didn’t already know he had cancer: doctor
- Biden’s 2022 cancer ‘slip-up’ that was downplayed by White House resurfaces after ex-president’s surprise diagnosis
- Doctor who worked with Biden says he had cancer ‘while he was president’: ‘He did not develop it in the last 100 to 200 days’
Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a well-respected oncologist and architect of the Affordable Care Act, told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” in a Monday appearance that Biden has “had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading.”
“He did not develop it in the last 100 to 200 days,” Emanuel added. “He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021.”
Additional reporting by Steven Nelson
