Former President Joe Biden is now undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment for prostate cancer, which was diagnosed as an aggressive form of metastatic cancer in May.
The protocol was called by many a "new phase" of his cancer treatment. Radiation is expected to span five weeks and marks a new point in his care, a source familiar told NBC News. He had already been taking a pill form of hormone medication.
Before this, Biden, who turns 83 next month, also had surgery to remove cancerous skin cells through Mohs surgery on September 4. During his presidency, Biden had a cancerous skin lesion removed from his chest, and a biopsy revealed cancerous cells that were successfully removed.
He's no stranger to hospitals. Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, which caused the former vice president not to run for president in 2016. As a young senator, Biden's daughter and first wife were killed in a car crash that left his other son Hunter hospitalized for months. And in 1988, Biden survived two life-threatening brain aneurysms while serving as a U.S. senator.
That ended with successful surgeries and no reported aneurysms since.
But as NBC News noted, "His re-election campaign and the final months of his presidency were marred by allegations that he was too old to run again and that he was not mentally fit. The former president and his family have repeatedly denied these claims." They resurfaced again when his former Vice President Kamala Harris' book was released and called his decision to run against Donald Trump again "reckless."
While about 1 in 44 men will die of prostate cancer, the American Cancer Society says most men diagnosed with the illness do not die from it.
"Cancer touches us all," Biden said in a May 19 post on X. "Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support."