Former President Joe Biden begins prostate cancer radiation treatments after announcing in May that the disease had progressed to his bones...Prostate cancer is prominent in Black men...By Clevelandurbannews.com, Ohio's Black digital news leader
Former President Joe Biden
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associate publisher
CLEVELAND, Ohio— Former President Joe Biden has begun radiation treatments for an aggressive form of prostate cancer after it was announced in May that the progressive disease had spread to his bones.
Health issues and troubling campaign poll numbers forced him to relinquish his 2024 bid for a second term in the White House.
A loyal Democrat, Biden, 82, was a two-term vice president under former President Barack Obama, the country's first Black president, and won the presidency in his own right over now President Donald Trump in 2020. But he bowed out of his 2024 reelection bid amid plummeting poll numbers, pressure from prominent Dems, and criticism from the mainstream media that he and the Democrats were covering up his deteriorating health.
A Republican real estate mogul and former reality star, Trump, then 78, would win a second non-consecutive term in 2024 over then-Vice President Kamala Harris, the nation's first Black female presidential nominee, of whom Biden and the Democrats endorsed.
Harris fought to win months leading up to the November 2024 presidential election, but to no avail as Trump, who won the presidency over then Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 relative to his first term in office, ultimately won both the electoral college and the popular vote over Harris.
Two U.S. presidents, Ulysses S. Grant and Herbert Hoover, have died from cancer. Grant died from throat cancer while in office, and Hoover died from colon cancer after he left office.
Biden's prostate cancer radiation treatments come as President Trump has sought to limit cancer and other critical research since taking office for a second, non-consecutive term in January.
Prostate cancer is a common cancer in Black men, who have a higher risk of developing and dying from the disease compared to other racial groups.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com the most-read Black digital newspaper and blog in Ohio. Tel. 216-659-0473. Email-editor@clevelandurbannews.com
Comments