JOE BIDEN’S White House physician is facing mounting calls to testify under oath following the former president’s shock late-stage cancer diagnosis.
Longtime physician Kevin O’Connor had declared Biden, 82, in good health just months before he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer.
The personal doctor repeatedly assured the public during Biden’s term that he was healthy and claimed he could have served another four years.
The former president made the shock revelation on Sunday – and was met with well wishes from around the world, including Donald Trump.
The Don wrote on Truth Social: “Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis.
“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”
However, shortly after the announcement, experts began questioning why the cancer – which has metastasized to his bones – was not detected earlier, especially given the advanced stage of the illness.
Arch-nemesis Trump joined in on the speculation and said he was “surprised” the public wasn’t told long ago about sickly Biden’s prostate cancer.
Trump also called O’Connor into question.
The president said on Monday: “Somebody is going to have to speak to his doctor… I think the doctor said he was just fine.”
He remarked: “It takes a long time to progress to that stage… I’m surprised that, you know, the public wasn’t informed much earlier because reaching stage nine signifies a lengthy progression.”
Stunned aides to the former US president told The Post Monday that his cancer should have been caught long before it spread to his bones.
They feared a cover-up – and suggested that concern about how the public may have reacted to the news delayed a critical diagnosis.
A White House staffer who worked in close proximity to Biden said: “I do believe that they felt like something was going on, and were worried about it and kind of hedged around it for a little bit.”
Leading oncologist expert Dr Zeke Emanuel claimed Biden likely had cancer at the start of his presidency in 2021.
“He had it while he was President,” he suggested.
“He probably had it at the start of his presidency, in 2021.”
MAGA loyalist and political commentator Jesse Watters blasted O’Connor for Biden’s questionable health record.
He said: “He needs to be brought in, he needs to be subpoenaed, and he needs to answer some of these questions.”
He also questioned if Biden had even been tested.
Watters continued: “He was supposed to have had a full test a year ago, and they said there was no cancer detected.
“Well, we need to know exactly what tests they did.”
Biden maintains that he sought further testing last week after noticing a small nodule on his prostate.
How could prostate cancer be missed?
By Sam Blanchard
It is likely that Joe Biden’s cancer started while he was still serving as president – as recently as January – but impossible to know how long he has had it.
Prostate cancer is widely regarded as the slowest growing form of cancer because it can take years for any sign of it to appear and many men never need treatment.
The former president’s office said his cancer is aggressive and has spread to his bones, further confusing the timeline.
PSA blood tests could indicate whether a patient is likely to have cancer but they become less accurate with age, and gold-standard tests involve taking biopsy tissue samples.
There is no guarantee that Mr Biden, 82, was tested during his presidency and, even if he was, the cancer is not certain to have been detected. It may have first formed a long time ago and only recently become aggressive, or started recently and grown very quickly.
Most cancers are found before they spread but a fast-growing one may be harder to catch in time.
Prostate cancers are well-known for not causing many symptoms in the early stages and the NHS says “there may be no signs for many years”.
The time it takes for a cancer to progress to stage four – known as metastatic, when it has spread to another body part – can vary from a number of months to many years.
Professor Suneil Jain, from Queen’s University Belfast, said: “Every prostate cancer is different and no-one from outside his direct team will have all the information to be specific about President Biden’s specific diagnosis or situation.
“In recent years there has been a lot of progress in the management of prostate cancer, with many new therapies becoming available.
“This has significantly extended the average life expectancy by a number of years.”
Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in males and one in eight men develop it at some stage in their life.
His illness was rated 9 on the prostate cancer Gleason scale – meaning it is extremely aggressive.
It generally translates to stage 4 cancer.
Critics also pointed out that O’Connor had unprecedented access to Biden’s medical records, and should have been responsible for picking up on the cancer earlier before it spread.
In February 2024, when Biden was the assumed Democratic presidential nominee, O’Connor insisted he was “fit to serve” following a routine physical at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
He also assessed Biden’s health in 2019, and concluded that he was “a healthy, vigorous, 77-year-old male, who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency”.
What are the symptoms every man needs to know?
In most cases, prostate cancer doesn’t have any symptoms until the growth is big enough to put pressure on the urethra – that tube you pee through.
Symptoms include:
- Needing to urinate more often, especially at night
- Needing to rush to the toilet
- Difficulty in starting to pee
- Weak flow
- Straining and taking a long time while peeing
- Feeling that your bladder hasn’t emptied fully
Many men’s prostates get larger as they age because of the non-cancerous conditions, prostate enlargement, and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
In fact, these two conditions are more common than prostate cancer – but that doesn’t mean the symptoms should be ignored.
The signs that cancer has SPREAD include bone, back, or testicular pain, loss of appetite, and unexplained weight loss.
Biden’s relationship with O’Connor dates back more than a decade.
The physician was closely involved with Biden’s son Beau as he fought brain cancer from 2013 to 2015 before succumbing to the disease.
The calls for Biden’s doc to testify come after an old clip of the former president resurfaced, in which he claimed to have had cancer.
Biden’s comments – made years ago – came during a speech about “cancer-causing” emissions from oil refineries near his childhood home in Delaware.
He said: “That’s why I and so damn many other people I grew up with have cancer and why for the longest time Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation.”
