Prostate cancer warning signs for men to look out for after Joe Biden diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ form of disease
PROSTATE cancer remains one of the biggest forms of cancer diagnosed among men worldwide and detecting early warning signs could help save lives.
Men around the world are being urged to look for warning signs after Joe Biden’s shocking cancer diagnosis.
Biden, 82, who served as president from 2021 to 2025, confirmed he had the advanced form of the disease in a statement from his personal office.
Biden was seen last week by doctors after suffering urinary symptoms, with a prostate nodule then being found.
He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.
While it is a more “aggressive” form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, meaning there would be the prospect of “effective management” of his illness.
The president and his family are currently reviewing treatment options with his doctors.
Experts have warned that Biden’s cancerous cells are “likely to grow quickly”.
Early prostate cancer, which is more treatable, doesn’t normally carry symptoms.
Which is why it gets even more important for men to look out for early warning signs to detect the disease from spreading beyond a point.
Some symptoms may start to emerge when the cancer growth is big enough to put pressure on the urethra – that tube you pee through.
When this happens, some people may experience the following:
- Needing to urinate more often, especially at night
- Needing to rush to the toilet
- Difficulty in starting to pee
- Weak flow
- Straining and taking a long time while peeing
- Feeling that your bladder hasn’t emptied fully
If the disease has spread to other parts of the body – which is when it’s known as advanced or metastatic prostate cancer – it can cause several other symptoms, including:
- Back or bone pain that doesn’t go away with rest
- Tiredness
- Weight loss for no reason
Many men’s prostates get bigger as they age because of two non-cancerous conditions: prostate enlargement and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
These conditions are more common than prostate cancer – but that doesn’t mean symptoms should be ignored, the charity said.
What causes prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is very common, but its causes are unknown.
Recent research suggests that being overweight increases your risk of prostate cancer, while exercising regularly lowers it.
A high-calcium diet, rich in dairy, is also thought to be unfavourable when it comes to risk level, the NHS says.
Eating foods that contain lycopene reduces the risk of prostate cancer developing, Cancer Research UK says.
This includes tomatoes and tomato-based foods, particularly when cooked.
To take an online test to reveal your risk of prostate cancer, click here.
How is prostate cancer treated?
Assuming prostate cancer is caught in its early stages, treatment is not normally immediately necessary.
In these cases, doctors have a policy of “watchful waiting”.
Treatment includes surgically removing the prostate, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy.
One man was cured after being given testosterone in an experimental trial designed to shock tumours to death.
Nearly all prostate cancer treatments come with the unwanted side effects of erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, which is why many men choose to delay treatment.
The only exception is non-surgical laser treatment, which doesn’t cause impotence – but is still in its trial stages.
If the cancer has already spread, it cannot be treated, and medical help is focused on prolonging life and relieving symptoms.
One in eight men will get prostate cancer
THE risk of developing prostate cancer depends on many factors, here are some of the facts about the disease and how many men it affects.
- One in eight men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime
- It is the fourth most common cancer worldwide, and the most common in men
- There are 55,000 new cases every year in the UK, and 1.4million globally
- Around 12,000 people lose their lives to prostate cancer annually in the UK and almost 400,000 around the world
- Prostate cancer accounts for 28 per cent of all new cancer cases in men in the UK, and 14 per cent of all new cancer cases in men and women combined
- Prostate cancer survival has tripled in the last 50 years in the UK
- More than three-quarters (78 per cent) of patients survive for 10 or more years
- About 490,000 men are living with and after prostate cancer in the UK
- It is most common in men aged 75 to 79
- Since the early 1990s, cases have increased by 53 per cent in the UK
- Mortality rates are up 16 per cent since the early 1970s in the UK
- Incidence rates are projected to rise by 15 per cent in the UK between 2023 to 2025 and 2038 to 2040
- Mortality rates are expected to fall five per cent in the UK over the same years
Source: Prostate Cancer UK, World Cancer Research Fund International and Cancer Research UK