Why Joe Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis shouldn’t make men panic

Former US president Joe Biden’s diagnosis of aggressive prostate cancer will have worried many men. After all, prostate cancer patients make for 15% of all male cancer patients around the world, according to a Lancet report published in 2024. And 3% among those are Indians. The Indian Council of Medical Research estimates that around 10 in every one lakh men are diagnosed with prostate cancer, making it the sixth most common cancer in India. The survival rate is relatively low (around 5 for every one lakh), but doctors say new treatments are improving survival rates even for those in the later stages.

In fact, men with early stages of prostate cancer can safely delay treatment without impacting survival by following active surveillance. Doctors say most prostate cancers grow very slowly, taking at least 10 years for a tumour to cause major symptoms.