A top oncologist who once worked for former President Joe Biden claimed Monday that his old boss must have had prostate cancer long before Sunday’s public announcement of his diagnosis and suggested the oldest-ever president may even have had the disease for “a decade.”
Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, a former member of Biden’s transition team who helped craft the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, stunned MSNBC’s left-leaning “Morning Joe” with his analysis that the 82-year-old likely had cancer while serving as president.
“He’s had this for many years, maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading,” Emanuel told the Biden-supporting hosts early Monday. “He did not develop it in the last 100 to 200 days.”
“Morning Joe” hosts were left stunned as Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel suggested Joe Biden’s advanced prostate cancer should have been caught earlier. MSNBC“He had it while he was president. He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021. Yes, I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that.”
The Sunday announcement from the former president’s office came two days after he learned of the diagnosis.
The 82-year-old had reported urinary symptoms which led doctors to find a “small nodule” on Biden’s prostate earlier this month, according to his staff.
Given the cancer’s Gleason score of 9 and the fact that it metastasized to the bone, many medical experts speculated that the former president had the prostate cancer for some time. Some doctors have said it is “inconceivable” Biden’s diagnosis managed to go undetected for so long.
Emanuel noted that while some doctors recommended not doing a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) exam – a routine bloodwork test – after the age of 70, he should have had those exams when he was younger.
Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. AFP via Getty Images“He was vice president and had a lot of exams under 70. So it’s a little surprising that they didn’t do it,” the oncologist said.
“And maybe President Biden decided he didn’t want the test. Many men do decide they don’t want a PSA, but this is also aggressive.
“When we talk about the aggressive part, what we mean is that Gleason score, that score is from two up to 10. And he’s a nine. And that means that the cancer doesn’t look normal, it looks very abnormal, which is probably why it’s in the bone,” he continued.
Joe Biden is sworn-in as president of the United States next to his wife Jill Biden, by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. REUTERSEmanuel noted that former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush both underwent PSA exams while in office.
“I don’t know what President Biden and his doctor discussed, but I think you are hinting at the other element, which is that President Obama had this test, President Bush had this test,” he said.
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“It is a little surprising that the doctor didn’t take it. And if he took it and didn’t report it and it was elevated, that is another case of doctors not being straightforward with us.
Biden delivered his farewell address on January 15, 2025. Getty Images“We’ve had several of them with President Trump, especially around his COVID diagnosis. And if that is true, that would be very troubling.”
When pressed about exactly how many years Biden may have had the disease, Emanuel said: “We don’t know, obviously. And it is a little surprising to many of us oncologists that he wasn’t diagnosed earlier.”
