Former US President Joe Biden is facing a worsening battle with prostate cancer, his son Hunter Biden has said, revealing that the disease has spread beyond his father’s bones and is causing severe pain.
Hunter Biden made the disclosure in a recent BBC interview, offering one of the clearest accounts yet of the former president’s condition.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter said. He described the illness as “very painful” and “very debilitating in many respects”.
Biden, 83, remains active despite the illness, Hunter said. He continues to speak publicly and remains engaged with political and national issues.
“He’s still doing his thing. He so believes in this country,” Hunter said.
The comments provide a more sobering picture of Biden’s health than the limited public updates released since his diagnosis.
Biden’s office announced in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer after doctors examined him for increasing urinary symptoms. The cancer had already spread to his bones when it was detected. His office said the disease was hormone-sensitive, meaning doctors believed it could be managed with treatment.
Biden later underwent radiation and hormone treatment as part of his cancer care, according to his office.
The diagnosis came four months after Biden left the White House, where concerns about his age and health had already become a defining issue of his final year in office.
Biden abandoned his campaign for a second term in July 2024, following mounting pressure over his age and fitness for office. The issue intensified after his poor performance in a televised debate with Donald Trump.
During his presidency, Biden’s doctors also monitored several chronic conditions, including an irregular heartbeat, high cholesterol, spinal arthritis and peripheral neuropathy. His medical reports said neurological examinations had found no evidence of Parkinson’s disease, dementia or another degenerative neurological disorder while he was in office.
The timing of the cancer diagnosis has also prompted questions.
Biden’s office said in 2025 that his last known prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, test had been carried out in 2014 and that he had not previously been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Some doctors questioned how a cancer advanced enough to have spread to the bones could have gone undetected. Others said such progression was possible, particularly in an older patient.
The disagreement has never established that Biden or his doctors concealed a cancer diagnosis. His office has consistently said he had not previously been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
For now, the most recent account of Biden’s condition has come from his family rather than from a detailed medical report.
Hunter said the illness had taken a toll on his father and those close to him. Yet he also portrayed Biden as determined to remain involved in public life.
“I wish he could complain more,” Hunter said, expressing concern about how much pain his father was enduring.
The former president has largely kept details of his treatment private. His latest diagnosis, however, has brought renewed attention to the health challenges facing the man who served as the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025.
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