Former President Joe Biden said in his forthcoming memoir that it was “absurd” that some accused him of hiding his cancer while in office.
“Let me tell you something: There isn’t anyone in this world with stage 4 cancer who doesn’t wish it had been caught sooner,” Biden said in the latest book excerpt, which was previously reported by MS NOW. “For anyone to think I would try to ignore or hide a cancer ravaging my body is absurd.”
The former president wrote that it is “standard medical protocol” to stop testing for prostate cancer after age 70. Biden was 82 when he left office.
“Of course, people said, ‘You weren’t just another older man. You were the president,'” Biden wrote. “Yes, I was. And as I sit here today, do I wish I had been tested sooner? Yes, I do. Do I wish the cancer had been caught before it spread to my bones? Yes, I do.”‘
“But I was treated no differently from any other eighty-two-year-old man in America,” he continued. “Maybe I should have been. But I wasn’t. Now I have to play the cards I’ve been dealt.”
Biden announced in May of 2025, months after leaving office, that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer that metastasized to his bones. In his book, he recalled that when he heard his diagnosis, “it hit me hard.”
“It’s one thing to imagine how hearing the word ‘cancer’ will upend your world,” he said. “It’s another thing to actually hear it. Those are moments we realize we’re all human. Even former presidents.”
The former president’s book “Promise Me, America” will be released on Nov. 17. On Sunday, Biden said he would not “be able to do as many conversations about my book as I’d hoped,” pointing to his fight against cancer. Biden wrote in his book that as of his writing, “I’m feeling good.”
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