Joe Biden who receives radiation therapy for prostate cancer, says a spokesman

Former US President Joe Biden receives radiation therapy as part of his prostate cancer treatment, a spokesman said.

The spokesman also said that Biden, 82, was undergoing hormone treatment without giving further details.

Radiation treatment was expected to last five weeks and mark a new point in his care, a source told NBC News.

In May, Biden’s service has announced that he has been diagnosed with a more aggressive form of the diseasewho had spread in his bones. The discovery was made after a democratic politician reported the symptoms of urine that made doctors find a small knot on his prostate.

At that time, Biden’s office stated that “he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by an assessment of Glison of 9 (Group 5) with bone metastases.

“Although this is a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer seems hormone sensitive, allowing effective management.”

The result of the Gleason of nine meant that his illness was classified as “high quality” and cancer cells could spread rapidly, according to the Cancer Research UK.

Biden left the post in January, as the oldest to serve the US president in history and questions about his health, struck his first term, which made him end his run for a re-election late in his campaign.

His former Vice President Kamala Harris runs instead as a candidate for President of Democrats, losing to current US President Donald Trump.

For many years, Biden has advocated for cancer examination.

In 2022, he and his wife, Jill Biden, resumed the Cancer Luna initiative with the goal of mobilizing research efforts to prevent more than four million cancer deaths by 2047.

Biden himself lost his biggest son, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015.

In recent months, Biden has largely withdrawn from the eyes of society.

In May he sat for an interview with the BBC – his first since he left the White House – where He admitted that the decision to withdraw from the competition in 2024 was “difficult”.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer affecting men behind skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say 13 in every 100 men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives. It says age is the most common risk factor.