On Sunday (May 18), the office of the 82-year-old former president issued an official statement confirming that Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer with a Gleason score of nine (Grade Group 5), which has metastasized to his skeletal system.
Supportive messages have since poured in for Biden from various quarters, including from President Donald Trump himself.
However, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., took a different approach on social media, suggesting the health announcement represented a “cover up” of previous knowledge.
The 47-year-old Trump Organization executive vice president and trustee also endorsed a comment claiming “without question” that Biden had been “running the country as a vegetable under the rug.”
On his X (formerly Twitter) account, Trump Jr. shared an image of a post from Dr. Steven Quay, who partially claimed it is “highly likely [Biden] was carrying a diagnosis of prostate cancer” during his White House tenure and that the “American people were uninformed.”
In response to this speculation, Trump Jr. wrote: “What I want to know is how did Dr. Jill Biden miss stage five metastatic cancer or is this yet another coverup???”
This statement contains multiple inaccuracies. First, Jill Biden holds a doctorate in education, not medicine. More significantly, there is no such classification as “stage five” cancer in medical oncology.
To clarify: what Trump Jr. referred to as “stage five” cancer does not exist in medical terminology.
According to established medical guidelines and Cancer Research UK, cancer staging consists of four potential classifications:
Stage 1 typically indicates a small cancer confined to the organ where it originated.
Stage 2 generally means the tumor has grown larger than in stage 1 but hasn’t begun spreading into surrounding tissues. In some cancer types, this may include spread to nearby lymph nodes.
Stage 3 usually indicates larger cancer growth that may have begun infiltrating surrounding tissues, with cancer cells potentially present in nearby lymph nodes.
Stage 4 signifies that the cancer has spread from its original location to another organ—also termed secondary or metastatic cancer.
The Gleason Score—alternatively known as the Grade Group—represents the standard system physicians employ to assess prostate cancer severity.
A cancer’s grade indicates how closely the cancer cells resemble normal cells, as Cancer Research UK explains.
This grading provides physicians insight into potential cancer behavior and appropriate treatment approaches.
A Gleason score of 6 corresponds to “Grade Group 1″—where cellular appearance closely resembles normal prostate cells, suggesting extremely slow growth potential, if any.
The highest Gleason classification is a score of nine or ten, known as “Grade Group 5.” This indicates highly abnormal cellular appearance, suggesting rapid growth potential.
Grade Group 2 represents cells still largely resembling normal prostate tissue, suggesting slow growth likelihood.
Between these classifications are: Gleason score 7 (Grade Group 3), where cells appear less similar to normal prostate tissue with “moderate” growth rates; and Gleason score 8 (Grade Group 4), featuring some abnormal cells with potential for moderate to rapid growth.
Therefore, Biden has been diagnosed with Grade Group 5 cancer—not the nonexistent “stage 5” referenced by Trump Jr.