“Who's responsible for covering up Biden's prostate cancer?” List of suspects is long--blogger Dennis Byrne..

What do you think?

(Editor’s note: In my first column on ex-President Biden and his Gleason 9 with metastasized to the bone, I raised some questions about Biden’s care.

(I’ve also heard questions from other patients and advocates who ask, among other things, why doctors were doing a digital rectal exam on an 82-year-old patient who had not have previous prostate cancer, contrary to guidelines. Did he have an earlier diagnosis? Could he already have been on Androgen Deprivation Therapy, which can cause cognitive issues, when he was in the disastrous debate with Donald Trump?

(As I predicted in my first column on Biden, questions would be raised about the medical and political management of his cancer. For example, while President Trump and the First Lady, wished Biden well, his son Donald Trump Jr. took shots at the Bidens. He criticized Dr. Biden for missing the signs of her husband’s prostate cancer. The Independent said: “The US president’s son shared a conspiratorial message claiming that the White House must have known about Biden’s diagnosis while he was in office.

(“What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???” Trump Jr. said in a sarcastic jab at former First Lady Jill Biden. [There is no stage five—he meant Grade Group 5. The public is getting a crash course in prostate cancer.]

(Still, a lot of things don’t add up. The headline on today’s newsletter is pretty strong stuff. It’s actually from the Substack newsletter, The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor. Dennis is an old friend of mine and a fellow prostate cancer patient. We were on staff together for many.years at the Chicago Sun-Times. I covered healthcare; he covered transportation and then was an opinion columnist. We don’t always agree. But I have great respect for Dennis.—HW)

He is a freelance writer , editor and author of “Madness: The War of 1812.”

(With his permission, I reprinted his Barbershop newsletter on Biden here. Let Dennis know what you think.)

By Dennis Byrne

Who knew?

It was bad enough that the Biden administration for years covered up the president’s unravelling cognition. Now it’s possible that his aggressive, metastatic prostate cancer was covered up in the same way. Was it hidden because it would have doomed his re-election bid?

Urologists and other medics are astonished that Biden’s cancer has progressed so far so quickly without someone—Biden himself, Dr. Jill or his doctors—noticing.

Indeed, the cancer has spread at an alarming rate. It has roared up to stage 4 with a Gleason score of 9 while metastasizing into the bone. It doesn’t get much worse than that. That’s why many experts don’t believe that his cancer first showed up just a few days ago.

Among them is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and a former member of Biden’s team that crafted Obamacare.

Emanuel said the 82-year-old likely had cancer while serving as president. Stunning.

“He’s had this for many years,” Emanuel said, “maybe even a decade, growing there and spreading. He did not develop it in the last 100 to 200 days.”

And most disturbing, Emanuel said, “He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021. Yes, I don’t think there’s any disagreement about that.”

In other words, add one more lie to the fakery that has characterized the Biden administration. Did Biden know he had it when he ran for president in 2020? Or when he served as president? Or when he decided to run for re-election. Is it possible that he believed himself healthy enough to be commander-in-chief?

Is it possible that he didn’t know that he had it? Is it possible that his wife and his puppet-masters knew, but keep the news from him? It was deplorable enough that Dr. Jill let a fading old man run for president in 2020, but if she knew and didn’t tell him about the cancer because she is so obviously ambitious it is especially monstrous.

Did Biden’s doctor not perform a standard test for the presence of prostate cancer? Such as a PSA test that discloses the presence of a specific protein that indicates a possible infection. Did he do a digital rectal exam? An ultrasound? An MRI? Now, a simple urine test might find the cancer.

Did the doctor know but kept the news from his patient—an unthinkable act by a health care professional. Did he tell only the president’s staff—a possible violation of medical privacy laws?

Cancer that has metastasized into the bones is quite painful. When did Biden start feeling the pain? Did he not share that pain with Dr. Jill or his own physician?

A Biden statement said he was diagnosed with a prostate nodule on May 6 because he was having urinary problems. On May 16 the aggressive cancer was announced,

Biden's most recent annual physical as president was in February 2024. His doctor, Kevin O'Connor, pronounced the president as a "healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency." Nope, there was no cancer, the doctor reported.

It is even more extraordinary that the cancer wasn’t caught sooner when the president has probably the best health care providers and facilities in the world.

I’ve had prostate cancer. It was detected early because of an elevated PSA. I had a biopsy to confirm it. I had nine weeks of radiation and some painful side-effects. But routine office visits ensured that the disease wouldn’t be hidden. I’ve been cancer free for several years now. Why couldn’t Biden?

Just how slowly prostate cancer grows is reflected in a debate over “active surveillance” for low-risk prostate cancer patients. It argues that the cancer grows so slowly, men should not be rushed into surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. Watchful waiting until it is decided that it might be dangerous.

(Howard Wolinsky, an experienced medical writer and a friend—we both worked together at the Chicago Sun-Times—explains it all in his blog, The Active Survivor. I highly recommend it. Thanks for the plug, Dennis.)

I’m not given to conspiracy theories, but it stretches belief that the cancer popped up overnight or that no one noticed until it was too late. Clearly Biden was physically frail and mentally challenged. But even a hint about his failings was declared anathema.

It’s bad enough that the very people who unequivocally declared Biden to be as sharp as a tack are now writing best sellers as if they are just now discovering his decline to be true.

But the possibility that someone, anyone, who hid Biden’s cancer from the public is beyond, way beyond, contemptible. It’s true that “democracy dies in darkness” as the liberal Washington Post posits. How much darker can it get than this?

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Q&A with Dr. E. May 31. Be there.

By Howard Wolinsky

Dr. Jonathan Epstein, the noted uropathologist, is coming back to The Active Surveillor audience for a Q&A at noon Eastern May 31.

Here’s your invitation:

When: May 31, 2025 noon Easterm (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/sazI-npeR3OdGWyRIrVRYg

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

The sessxion is co-sponsored by ASPI and AnCan.

Here’s the scoop: Only 100 people at a time could get in to see his first lecture and Q&A last Saturday because of a glitch with Zoom.

So I invited him back. And Dr. Epstein graciously accepted.

If you want to send question in advance, write to me at howard.wolinsky@gmail.com

Please get down to your essential question and limit the back story to help get your questions answered. We can’t dispense medical advice.

Meanwhile, The Active Surveillor YouTube Channel is getting a lot of traffic. More than 1,500 people have viewed the Epstein video. It would be worth checking out for background to hear Dr E.’s talk and response to questions.

While you’re there, view the other videos in my new The Active Surveillor’s YouTube Channel. Please like and subscribe.

Dr. Epstein’s slides are available here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1OPXmN-m1R31spW-22s1rL_C0DSMX92tW/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103480725196523876180&rtpof=true&sd=true

I’m giving valuable prizes to the first registrant and the 100th: the much-coveted The Active Surveillor T-shirt or a plush prostate doll. Maybe I’ll add the 200th and 300th registrants?

ASPI webinar on the Great Biopsy Debate this Saturday

UMiami’s Sanoj Punnen, MD, takes on the debate over transperineal vs. transrectal biopsies. Active Surveillance Patients International (ASPI)’s monthly webinar will focus on these issues in a program entitled, “The great biopsy debate: Where do we stand on transperineal vs. transrectal?”

The program will be Saturday, May 24 from noon to 1:30 pm Eastern.

Register here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/UZVDHmq9Rlyw6y_mqmK0hg#/registration

Check out Punnen’s presentation of the MAST AS study at the recent meeting of the American Urological Association: https://news.med.miami.edu/improving-prostate-cancer-prediction-during-active-surveillance/

Please send questions in advance to: contactus@aspatients.org

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