Prostate Cancer Screenings Being Spotlighted After Biden’s Cancer Diagnosis

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — “Prostate cancer is a very common disease. It’s one of the most common cancers that are out there. Of course, it’s limited just to men, but it’s still in the top three,” said Dr. Ash Jensen, Radiation Oncology at Sanford Health.

Prostate Cancer is a type of cancer that develops in the prostate gland. Men over 50 are typically screened for this cancer as it is the most common time for PSA levels to rise. Recently, former President Joe Biden announced that he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

“What’s happened to President Biden is that the cancer was not caught at an early point in time. I don’t have details on what his PSA level was, but it potentially may have been something that was caught earlier and at a stage where we might still have a chance to cure it.”

Biden’s diagnosis was ranked on the Gleason scale with a score of 9 and has been stated that it has reached up to his bones. Dr. Jensen said that once he saw the mention of it reaching his bones he knew that it was near 10 on the scale.

“Some prostate cancers are big and bad and aggressive and move quickly and kill people. But a lot of prostate cancers are very slow-growing. Someone might be diagnosed, you know, at age sixty, and you could do nothing with that prostate cancer, and it wouldn’t spread or cause them problems for ten or twenty years.”

Dr. Jensen states that the earliest to check with your doctor on these screenings would be when you are fifty years old.

For more information on prostate cancer screenings, Dr. Jensen recommends consulting with a doctor or your local primary care provider.