Men's health doctor on Biden's cancer diagnosis

Former President Joe Biden addressing his cancer diagnosis on social media, saying he is grateful for all the outpouring of love and support

Biden's office announced yesterday that he is battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has now spread to his bones

All right, joining us now to break down the tough road ahead for the former president is Dr. Jacob Kurgan

director of men's health and infertility at Maimonides Medical Center. Doctor, thanks for being with us today

Let's walk through what we do know. He said to have a Gleason score of nine

What does that mean? Good to be here, guys. Nice to see you. So a Gleason score is basically the grading of how aggressive prostate cancer cells look under the microscope

Six being the least aggressive sort of prostate cancer and nine and ten being the most aggressive

So he does have a more aggressive form of the prostate cancer

And this is important because initially it gives us an idea of how likely that cancer is to metastasize and go to other places

And unfortunately, with President Biden's situation, it already has spread, as they've said, to the folks

Yeah, I mean, it is just when I first saw the news, just so surprised to see how far advanced this cancer was

How long do you think it was progressing for and why wasn't it caught earlier? Yeah, I don't have information about what his PSA tests or what his prostate exams were like before

It's pretty unusual to reach this stage where it goes outside the prostate without having some

forewarning Usually the PSA the prostate antigen levels start to rise and then they rise dramatically and that usually gives us clues that something going on So I not sure what the records were

And I believe the last time he was given a clean bill of health, they did not mention anything about the prostate or the PSA level

So the suspicion is that this has been going on for a while

Well, prostate cancer is fairly slow growing as far as cancers go and doesn't just metastasize overnight

Right. And, you know, what you just said about how prostate cancer tends to be slow moving for someone who's 82 years old

It's a difficult decision to basically how to treat it, you know, how aggressively you treat it when you try to keep in mind the quality of life factor

Right. Yeah, absolutely. That's right on. We know that prostate cancer, when it's hormone sensitive, which is what Mr. Biden has, has a lot of treatment options

Usually we give hormone therapy. After that, in the last 10, 15 years, we've really gotten a lot of different medications, both hormonal, immunotherapy, radiation related, that do a really good job of prolonging someone's quality and quantity of life

One thing to keep in mind, of course, is he's 82. He needs to balance his quality of life, like you said, Steve, and his quantity of life

I'm sure he's going to be in the hands of good doctors who will have a good conversation with him, his family, and decide what should be done, how aggressive to be

But there are a lot of treatment options coming up for him. All right, doctor, we appreciate your perspective

Thank you very much. Good to see you guys. My pleasure. Likewise