Former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to a spokesperson Sunday afternoon.
The former president and his wife are currently considering their options for treatment of the disease, which has reached an advanced stage and has spread to the former president's bones.
The metastasized cancer may be harder to treat, but the spokesperson says Mr. Biden's cancer is "hormone-sensitive," which means effective management is an option, implying that the disease cannot be cured.
Biden was found to have some nodules, or small growths, on his prostate during a routine exam this past Tuesday, so biopsies were taken and examined.
That led to the diagnosis of prostate cancer, though doctors will often call prostate cancer that has spread to the bones by another name, Metastatic Bone Cancer.
The Biden family received the news Friday.
The family spokesperson did not mention a prognosis or possible outline of the disease's expected effects.
Prostate cancer is the number one cause of cancer among men in the United States but is the second-leading cause of death, because that particular form of cancer is often slow-growing, doctors say.
In Mr. Biden's case it appears to be a somewhat aggressive form of the disease, though, the spokesperson said.