FRIDAY, May 23, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Former President Joe Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis has drawn attention to screening guidelines for older men. 

When Biden, 82, was diagnosed last week, his cancer had already spread to his bones. His last prostate screening was more than a decade ago.

“President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014," a spokesperson for the former president said this week. "Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer.”

PSA is an abbreviation for prostate-specific antigen test, which looks for a protein made by the prostate. High levels can be a sign of cancer, but the test can also give false positives, NBC News reported.

That means it may suggest cancer is present when it is not. Because of this, and because older men often die of other causes, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force does not recommend PSA testing for men 70 and older.

Biden’s late-stage diagnosis has led to questions about whether his cancer developed quickly, NBC News said, or went unnoticed during his presidency.

Experts say advanced prostate cancer can sometimes grow quietly for years before being detected.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who advised Biden’s COVID-19 transition team, said on MSNBC that the cancer had likely been “growing there and spreading” for a long time.

Dr. William Dahut, chief scientific officer for the American Cancer Society, told NBC News, “We definitely would anticipate that he has had prostate cancer for many, many years."

While most prostate cancers grow slowly, some rare types can become aggressive quickly.

In Biden’s case, doctors say the cancer is serious but still treatable, though not curable.

President Donald Trump, 78, had a PSA test earlier this year, according to medical records that have been made public — meaning some doctors are still choosing to screen older patients for prostate cancer.

More information

The National Cancer Institute has more on prostate cancer screening.

SOURCE: NBC News, May 20, 2025