Biden Denies He Hid Cancer Diagnosis in New Memoir

Former President Joe Biden says he never hid his cancer diagnosis from the American people, forcefully rejecting claims that he knew he was ill while still in the White House. In excerpts from his forthcoming memoir, "Promise Me, America," the 83-year-old writes that the suggestion he concealed an aggressive, stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis is "absurd" — and says that had he known about the disease in 2024, he would not have sought another term as president.

File photo: Former President Joe Biden. His memoir, 'Promise Me, America,' is set to be published on November 17. (Official White House portrait)

The memoir, which chronicles Biden's four years in office, is set to be published on Tuesday, November 17. Excerpts obtained by MS NOW were published this week, days after Biden announced that his ongoing cancer treatment would force him to scale back the book's promotional tour. The release has revived a debate that has followed him since his diagnosis was announced on May 18, 2025 — about four months after he left office — when his office said doctors had found an aggressive prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.

What Biden Writes in the Memoir

According to the excerpts published by MS NOW, Biden describes the reaction to his diagnosis as a "cynical twist" in the political press. "Almost immediately, the reaction was: 'You hid it from us.' 'You must have known it.' 'You're lying,'" he writes. "Let me tell you something: There isn't anyone in this world with stage 4 cancer who doesn't wish it had been caught sooner."

"For anyone to think I would try to ignore or hide a cancer ravaging my body is absurd," he adds.

Biden writes that he first sought medical advice in May 2025 after experiencing urinary symptoms. Doctors found a nodule on his prostate and diagnosed him with aggressive, stage 4 prostate cancer. He announced the diagnosis two days later and began hormone and radiation therapy immediately. According to the memoir, he completed radiation treatment in October and continues to receive hormone therapy to control the disease.

The Screening Question

Biden also addresses the question he says he has been asked most often since the diagnosis: why was the cancer not caught earlier? His answer rests on a fact of American medicine that surprised many of his critics — routine prostate cancer screening is not standard care for men his age.

"Here are the simple facts," Biden writes. "Standard medical protocol is to stop testing men for prostate cancer after the age of seventy."

That account is supported by the public record. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force advises against prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, screening for men ages 70 and above, citing concerns about false positives and the overtreatment of low-risk forms of the disease. The Washington Post reported in May 2025 that Biden's office had confirmed his last known prostate cancer screening took place in 2014, when he was 71 and serving as vice president — meaning he went more than a decade without a PSA test, even as he underwent annual physicals as president.

"And as I sit here today, do I wish I had been tested sooner? Yes, I do. Do I wish the cancer had been caught before it spread to my bones? Yes, I do," Biden writes. "But I was treated no differently from any other eighty-two-year-old man in America. Maybe I should have been. But I wasn't."

Medical experts note that prostate cancer can develop for years without symptoms, and that some aggressive forms can spread quickly.

Trump and the Critics

Not everyone has accepted Biden's account. President Donald Trump was among those who questioned the timeline. Trump initially offered sympathy to Biden and his family when the diagnosis was announced, but his position soon changed. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he questioned why the public had not been informed sooner.

"I think it's very sad, actually," Trump told reporters. "I'm surprised that it wasn't, you know, the public wasn't notified a long time ago because to get to stage nine, that's a long time." He added that "somebody is not telling the facts," and suggested Biden's doctors may have been withholding information. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., also publicly suggested the illness could have been known during Biden's presidency.

The questions landed in a climate already primed for them. Biden's health was a central issue in the final months of his presidency and his 2024 re-election campaign. He ended his bid for a second term in July 2024 after a disastrous debate performance against Trump intensified questions about his health and mental acuity.

"I Wouldn't Have Run"

In an interview with People magazine published on Wednesday, Biden went further than the memoir excerpts, addressing the question at the heart of the 2024 campaign: what would he have done differently if he had known?

Biden told People that had he known about his cancer in 2024, he would not have gone forward with his re-election bid, "because I don't think an 80-year-old man with cancer should be running" for president.

He also struck an optimistic tone about his prognosis, saying the cancer has "not metastasized beyond what it already was." "I'm not saying I'll live forever. But the point is that I have all my faculties, I have access to all the things I had before and I feel good," he said, adding that many people diagnosed with prostate cancer "live long lives, who live for another 10, 20 years."

His family has been more candid about the toll. In August, his son Hunter Biden said his father's cancer was "very painful, and it's very debilitating in many respects." Former first lady Jill Biden told NBC in June that her husband "will live with cancer 'til the rest of his life."

File photo: Joe Biden speaks to reporters in Delaware in November 2020.

A Scaled-Back Book Tour

The memoir's release comes as Biden's health continues to shape his public life. On Sunday, he said in a social media post that his treatment would limit how much he can do to promote the book. "Some days are better than others," he wrote. "It hasn't stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down. What that means is, unfortunately, I won't be able to do as many conversations about my book as I'd hoped."

According to the Wall Street Journal, the design of the book's rollout took his health situation into account, and events were not canceled as a result of his health. Biden said his doctors are encouraged by his response to treatment, even as the disease continues to affect his daily life.

The Wall Street Journal reported last year that Biden sold the memoir to Hachette's Little, Brown & Co. for around $10 million. His 2017 memoir, "Promise Me, Dad," about his oldest son Beau, was a No. 1 bestseller.

What This Means

Biden's memoir is, in part, an attempt to settle the argument over his health on his own terms before history does it for him. The book covers his four years in the White House, the COVID-19 pandemic, the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, his domestic legislation and global diplomacy, and the deliberations behind his decision to end his 2024 re-election bid. But the passages about his cancer may prove the most closely read — and the most contested.

Biden's defense is narrow but specific: he did not know, and he was not screened because of his age. What remains contested is not the timeline itself but what to make of it — and whether a president should be held to a different standard of medical surveillance than an ordinary 82-year-old man.

File photo: The White House in Washington. Biden left office in January 2025.

What Happens Next

"Promise Me, America" reaches shelves on Tuesday, November 17, and the full text will almost certainly contain more passages about Biden's health, his presidency and his decision to step aside in 2024 than the excerpts released so far. Its publication is likely to renew the debate over his final year in office, with supporters pointing to the memoir as a full accounting and critics mining it for new inconsistencies.

Biden's promotional appearances, limited by his treatment, will be watched closely for further comments on his health. His doctors have said they are encouraged by his response to treatment, and Biden himself has said he feels good and retains all his faculties.

For now, the former president's message is the one he wrote in the book: he did not hide his cancer, he wishes it had been found sooner, and he would not have asked voters for four more years if he had known. Whether that settles the question — or simply restarts it — will be decided in the days after the book reaches shelves.