Biden will be here soon: Former President metastatic prostate cancer

What's wrong with testing at any age? I can see "cut you open at 95 years old, just to have a look in case" is stupid... but a blood test? Just do it.
It's starting to sound a lot like "Who cares.... you're old. You're dying soon anyway.".
If a doctor declines to do a simple blood test, time to go doctor-shopping.
You'd do it for a lawyer.
If a lawyer says "Forget it. You're going to jail", wouldn't you try someone else?

Yes, I am *so* tired of all the confident ignorance in the media from journalists and social-media types who spent 5 minutes Google-ing "prostate cancer" and think they know all about it now. 😡

So what do you do when you happen to squeeze in a PSA test at a very healthy 84 (against the screening guidelines) and learning your prostate lesion is Gleason 9?

BTW, I read that the last PSA test Biden had (before this episode) was 2014.

I started out with severe bone pain from metastasis found throughout my spine and ribs. Doctors at first thought the pain was due to my Gall Bladder. I had emergency surgery to remove my Gall Bladder. I thought my pain was over. Nope. Pain continued. I had an MRI. It found bone metastases in spine, ribs, femurs, hips etc. PSA was 25 and 28. I recieved 10 radiation cycles to the spine and 5 cycles to the ribs. At the same time, I start on Casodex for a month, PSA dropped very fast. A month later I started Eligard, Nubeqa (Darolutamide) and Zometa infusions. The doctors immediately started me on chemotherapy docetaxel. I completed 10 cycles of chemotherapy. It was my decision to go beyond 6 cycles.
After 10 cycles of chemo my PSA dropped to 0.234. My PSA continued to drop to undetectable and has remained undetectable for almost 3 years now. I have my annual bone and CT scan June 3rd and June 6th along with my Eligard and Xgeva shots. I get Xgeva now because I became allergic to Zometa. I will also get my blood results including my PSA. I hate the anxiety of waiting on the PSA value.

Be aware. Three biopsies showed no cancer but symptoms kept escalating. A different method of testing revealed the cancer. Change doctor. Be more proactive.

The challenge with biopsies, as Dr Walsh's book points out, is that they sample only a tiny % of prostate tissue, and they can sometimes miss very small tumours completely — almost literally a needle poking into a haystack. That's why diagnosis needs to be a multilayered approach, including digital rectal exams, imaging, blood work (especially PSA), genetic testing, and monitoring symptoms. The plan is that if the cancer slips through one net, it will get tangled in one of the others.

That said, biopsy is a pretty-good test once the cancer has formed large-enough tumours, especially if it's done at a facility that does hundreds or even thousands of prostate biopsies a year (you don't want to be just the prostate biopsy of the week or month, because they won't have the chance to develop their skills to the same extent).

In my case (which is atypical), they never biopsied my prostate at all. I had a lesion on my spine of unknown origin, so they biopsied it, then had to surgically remove it two days later because it was paralysing me. The surgeon said it felt like prostate cancer, the biopsy pathology result a couple of days later confirmed prostatic origin, and analysis of the tumour material itself backed up those conclusions. But I never had a needle poked into my prostate at all (just a DRE), so I didn't even get a Gleason score, though we know it's either 8 or 9 for a cancer that was aggressive enough to spread to my spine that fast.

HE should have gotten those done. I can't see a physician worth his salt not doing those tests. If he declined those tests, he should be open about that.

as President he should not have the option of "declining" and I would think anyone smart enough to be President would know enough to just get the test. I honestly cannot even imagine what happened...but he won't be open if it was his decision to not have it.

The government’s medical advisory board - the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) - recommends no routine prostate cancer screening after age 70y: https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/prostate-cancer-screening

Should Biden have requested/insisted? Yes.

But, as with most guys, they do what their doctors say and don’t question it. Even on this forum, guys indicate that whatever their doctors say to do, they do……they explicitly trust whatever their doctors say….and that they’re putting their lives in their doctors’ hands.

That probably is not the best way to do things.