Wakeup call on prostate cancer screening after President Biden’s recent stage 4 diagnosis

With former President Joe Biden’s recent diagnosis of stage four prostate cancer, many Americans have wondered how it could have gone unnoticed or diagnosed for that long in his position.

“In 2025, unless someone elects not to seek medical care, there is no excuse for a man with prostate cancer to come to medical attention at an advanced and incurable stage,” medical director Thomas Reid of the Big Horn Basin Cancer Center said.

Dr. Reid reported that the rate of prostate cancer is slowly increasing by 1.8% per year over time, with the death rates decreasing by .6% per year. But for those individuals that wait and are diagnosed in the late, advanced stages, the death rate increases by 7% each year, which is a function of people not getting screened. 

Stage four prostate cancer is treatable, but incurable. Therefore, it is vital to be screened before it is too late and before symptoms progress.

Statistics show that men from the ages of 50-59 have a one in 52 chance of getting this form of cancer. The odds increase to one in three for men ages 60-69, with the odds being six out of 10 for men over the age of 70.

“Some of those prostate cancers may be very low risk and may never progress to anything,” Reid said. “The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends not to screen anyone over the age of 70, with their thoughts being that those individuals are likely to die from other causes.”

Reid believes that individuals should get screened, regardless of age, if there is a potential to have life cut short.

“We need to be more vigilant,” he said. “It is a more intelligent approach to apply screenings to the individual, whereas guidelines are across the spectrum, and not all 70-year-olds are the same.”

He said that men are notorious for not following up with doctors, so it is equally important for spouses and significant others to give them the push they need to seek medical attention.

It is important to know that if prostate cancer is diagnosed and treated at stages 1-3, the five-year survival rate is 100%, whereas the survival rate for people with stage 4 (across the board) is only a 37% chance of surviving five years.

Dr. Reid has been in Cody with the Big Horn Basin Cancer Center for 4½ years specializing in hematology and oncology. He said he is working with North Big Horn Hospital’s CEO Eric Connell to try and bring to Lovell a clinic and the benefits of doing some outreach efforts in the community.

“My wife and I love the area,” Reid said. “There is something very special about the Big Horn Basin that is very unique, and we want each and every resident to have access to the best medical care available to live long, healthy lives to enjoy it.”