Joe Biden says his prostate cancer radiation treatment produced the result doctors were seeking.
The 83-year-old former president issued the update on September 8, timed to Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. It was his most detailed public statement on his health since his son Hunter Biden described the disease as painful and debilitating in an August interview with BBC Newsnight.
“My treatment worked as intended,” Biden wrote, thanking the doctors, nurses, and medical professionals who cared for him.
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Biden did not claim to be cancer-free. He offered no new prognosis and made no mention of whether further treatment is planned.
His cancer was diagnosed in May 2025 as already metastatic, meaning it had spread from the prostate to his bones before doctors caught it. His office described it at the time as an aggressive form of the disease with a Gleason score of 9, also known as Grade Group 5, placing it near the top of the scale used to measure how abnormal and fast-moving prostate cancer cells are.
Doctors had treatment options available because the cancer was hormone-sensitive, a characteristic that allows physicians to target the hormones that help the disease grow. Biden went on to receive both hormone treatment and radiation therapy. A spokesperson confirmed in October 2025 that radiation was part of his plan, and people familiar with his care said at the time that he was responding well.
As originally reported, Tuesday’s statement struck a notably more hopeful tone than what Hunter Biden shared publicly just one month earlier.
In that BBC Newsnight interview, Hunter said the disease had continued spreading and was taking a serious physical toll on his father. “It’s very painful, and it’s very debilitating in many respects,” Hunter said. He also noted that his father remained active despite the difficulties. “He’s still out there. He’s still doing his thing,” Hunter said.
Biden reinforced that message in his own statement, saying treatment had allowed him to keep working, including finishing his forthcoming presidential memoir. The book, titled “Promise Me, America,” is scheduled for release on November 17 through Little, Brown and Company. The 480-page volume will cover his four years in the White House, his initial decision to seek reelection in 2024, and his eventual choice to step aside.
Biden also used the statement to urge American men to talk with their doctors about prostate cancer screening, noting that outcomes improve dramatically when the disease is found before it spreads.
More than 330,000 American men are expected to receive a prostate cancer diagnosis this year, according to Biden’s statement. He wrote that his own diagnosis had made the annual awareness campaign far more personal. “By the time we found it,” he said, “it had already spread to my bones.”
