Thomas Reid

Dr. Thomas Reid said it’s shameful that in the USA, with our high level of medical services, a former president was able to develop stage four prostate cancer. 

It was announced last month that former President Joe Biden had been diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. 

The Big Horn Basin Cancer Center doctor who is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology, said there is no reason it shouldn’t have been caught earlier by regular testing, except that there are guidelines by national medical groups that recommend tests for prostate cancer be stopped after age 70. 

Dr. Reid disagrees. 

“The chance of getting prostate cancer between 50 and 59 is about one in 52,” he said. “The chance of getting prostate cancer between 60 and 69 is one in three. The chance of getting prostate cancer over the age of 70, between 70-79, is six out of 10. So, a 60% chance.”

Added to that, he said, the average American male at the age of 70 still has a 14-year lifespan. 

“I think it's appalling when we say how wonderful U.S. health care is to the rest of the world, yet we have a president of the United States who was just diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer. That doesn't make us look good,” Dr. Reid said. “Take a step back and say, ‘OK, what if this was my grandfather? What if this was my dad? What if this was my sibling?’ I would take the politics out. But I just think it's appalling. And, you know, and I think every American should be angry that we have these quasi government organizations making these guidelines, which I think are part science, part touchy feely and a big dollop of hand wringing.”

As Dr. Reid explained in a letter to the Wall Street Journal, neither the American Urological Association nor the United States Preventive Services Task Force recommend PSA tests for men over 70 years of age.

“The assumption is that prostate cancers are slow-growing and that older men will likely die of other causes given life expectancy,” he wrote. “There is also the silly concept of over-diagnosis —  that we will diagnose too many nonaggressive early-stage prostate cancers that likely won't evolve into more aggressive forms.”

Dr. Reid said the recommendations don’t take into account that doctors are generally good at determining their patients’ health and whether or not they are in good enough health to handle treatments for cancer after age 70. 

He said he determines, based on the PSA test level, whether a biopsy is needed.

“I don't follow those guidelines because I think they're incorrect, because we're going to miss people just like President Biden,” he said. “So for stage one, two and three, the five year survival rate, it's 100% for five years, whereas the five year survival rate for stage four is only about 37%, and so we're talking a big difference in survival.”