When you have advanced prostate cancer: What living with the disease looks like - CNN

What the report says

CNN published an expert health analysis tied to former President Joe Biden’s recent update on treatment for metastatic prostate cancer. The article, written by Dr. Jamin Brahmbhatt, a urologist and robotic surgeon with Orlando Health and an assistant professor at the University of Central Florida’s College of Medicine, uses Biden’s case to explain how advanced prostate cancer is managed today.

According to CNN, Biden said in a video released July 15 that his treatments were going well. CNN reported that he announced in May 2025 that he had an aggressive prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, and that official updates have described hormone therapy, a completed course of radiation and a continued public presence. The article notes that Biden’s cancer was described as having a Gleason score of 9, bone spread and hormone-sensitive status — details doctors use to assess risk and treatment options.

The piece emphasizes that survival statistics can be misleading for individual patients. CNN cites American Cancer Society figures showing very high five-year relative survival when prostate cancer remains in or near the prostate, but a much lower rate once it reaches distant parts of the body. Brahmbhatt cautions that those numbers reflect broad groups treated in earlier periods and do not predict any one person’s outlook.

CNN also explains that treatment for metastatic prostate cancer has become more aggressive and more precise over the past decade. Doctors now often combine testosterone-lowering hormone therapy with newer hormone-blocking drugs and, in some cases, chemotherapy earlier in the disease course. Imaging such as PSMA PET scans and genetic testing can help determine where cancer has spread and guide therapy.