Treating prostate cancer

Prostate cancer can sit dormant for years. -DR. MAHA HUSSAIN, ONCOLOGIST

- - BY ALICE PARK

In a statement from his personal office on May 18, former President Joe Biden revealed that he has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, and that he and his family are "reviewing treatment options with his physicians."

Once it metastasizes, prostate cancer is generally not curable. But those options could give him a good chance of controlling the cancer, according to experts. Most prostate cancer is fueled by the male hormone testosterone, so the most effective strategies to control it starve the cancer by cutting off its supply. Historically, doctors have removed the testes-the main source of the hormone-but today, pills and injections can suppress testosterone not just in the testes but also in other organs that produce small amounts, like the adrenal glands. Doctors also now add chemotherapy to hormone suppression to better control cancer growth.

Exactly which combinations of treatments are right for Biden will depend on whether his cancer is new or it was previously diagnosed and recently reemerged. Either scenario is possible, say experts.