Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread beyond his bones and is now “very painful,” his son Hunter Biden said in a new interview, marking one of the starkest health updates yet on the former president.
Quick Take
- Hunter Biden told the BBC his father’s cancer has spread further and is “very painful” and “very debilitating.”
- Doctors diagnosed Biden, now 83, with an aggressive prostate cancer in May 2025 that had already reached his bones.
- Jill Biden has said her husband will live with stage 4 cancer for the rest of his life, at a slower pace.
- Biden’s team says he is responding to treatment, even as some close friends voice growing worry.
Son Describes Father’s Pain
Hunter Biden told the BBC’s “Newsnight” program that his father’s cancer “has spread, metastasized into his bones and further.” He called the disease “really, really hard” to watch and said he wished his father “would complain more, because it’s not good”. Hunter Biden separately described the illness as “very painful and very debilitating” in comments that made national news.
The Original Diagnosis
Biden’s office announced in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer after seeking care for urinary symptoms. Doctors found the cancer had already spread to his bones. His Gleason score, a measure of how aggressive a cancer is, came back at 9 out of a possible 10, placing him in the highest risk group. The diagnosis came just months after Biden left the White House.
Biden began radiation and hormone therapy shortly after the diagnosis. His office said the cancer appeared “hormone-sensitive,” meaning it could respond well to treatment even though it is not curable. He completed a round of radiation therapy in October 2025, which his team called encouraging progress, though not the end of his care.
Family Offers Blunt Updates
Jill Biden has given some of the most direct public comments on her husband’s condition. She said the former president would not have been able to serve another four years as president and confirmed he will live with stage 4 cancer for the rest of his life, at a slower pace than before. Her remarks came as the family has tried to balance honesty with reassurance about his day-to-day health.
Friends Voice Growing Concern
Behind the public statements, some people close to Biden have quietly expressed worry. A report from earlier this year described longtime associates and supporters raising concerns about the toll the aggressive cancer was taking, even as Biden and his aides projected optimism and pointed to his continued public appearances. More recent reporting has noted growing concern among friends over increased fatigue as his treatment continues.
What Doctors Say About the Odds
Medical experts note that a diagnosis like Biden’s is serious but not automatically a short-term death sentence. Stanford urologist Dr. Geoffrey Sonn told reporters that metastatic prostate cancer is not curable, but it is highly treatable, and patients can live for years on modern hormone therapy drugs. That context matters for a public figure whose health has faced scrutiny since well before he left office.
Why This Story Resonates
The public has grown used to incomplete information about the health of aging leaders, on both sides of the aisle. Biden’s cancer is a documented, serious diagnosis, not a rumor. But the sharper claims of severe pain and debilitation come mainly from a family member’s remarks, not from a released medical report. That gap between official statements and personal accounts is part of why Americans remain skeptical of how much they are really being told about the people who hold, or once held, the nation’s highest office.
The report of Joe Biden’s health is breaking my heart. Wishing president Biden and his family well. pic.twitter.com/ldrsCFhGHK
— Moments to Remember | News (@allchronology) August 9, 2026
For now, Biden’s team maintains he is engaged in ongoing treatment and staying active where he can. His family’s more candid comments, paired with the original clinical details from May 2025, give the public the clearest picture yet of a former president managing an aggressive, incurable disease in the years after leaving Washington.
Sources:
bbc.com, zerocancer.org, cnn.com, cbsnews.com, michiganmedicine.org, youtube.com, bu.edu, reuters.com
