I think I read it was a fast spreading sort, and it’s tracked less closely after 70.
It is a "fast-spreading sort," but with two caveats. One, it's fast-spreading
now, but it almost certainly didn't start out that way. Two, "fast-spreading" is a relative term. If you have a low Gleason score, you're on like a multi-decades time frame, and many oncologists, together with their patients will choose what's called "watchful waiting" where you don't do any treatment and just monitor it for worsening. If you have a Gleason score of 9, as was reported here, you're on a much faster timeframe, ergo, for prostate cancer, it's "fast,".....but it's still on like a 10 year time frame.
Between that, and the fact his office's statement said it was a hormone-sensitive cancer, the whole thing throws reasonable doubt on just now finding out. Doctors can't know if prostate cancer will respond to hormone treatment until they've done it for a while and monitor the PSA score (it should decline). You don't diagnose prostate cancer a week ago and then know today that it's hormone-sensitive. Either his office badly misspoke, or there's more to the story.
All that said, there's no rule I'm aware of that makes a US President somehow exempt from HIPAA protection, and we're not entitled to know his medical standing, as far as I'm aware. If he chose to not be tested/screened, or he was screened and was told about cancer, that's his business, and I don't know of any law or rule stating he had to tell us anything.....even if one might reasonably suggest that the "honor system" ought to compel someone running for office to disclose that information. Another possibility (I'm not commenting on likelihood, just possibilities) is that his doctors caught it and didn't tell him or his family or staff for some reason. Yet another possibility is they screened him and they just didn't catch it. Again, that's so unlikely that I don't give it much credence, but it's a possibility. Regardless, I wouldn't think too much about any of this because I've seen a lot of patients who choose not to tell anybody anything. Except for the fact that they said it's hormone-sensitive. I don't know what the real story is, and I'm certainly not entitled to his medical records, but there's something incongruous about saying he was diagnosed last week and that it's hormone sensitive. They either misspoke or there's something else going on. What, exactly, I do not know.
If anyone wonders why I spill so much digital ink on this, it's because I don't like the potential misunderstandings such a story could cause. This potentially leaves people with the idea that you're humming along, doing what you're supposed to be doing, and BAM!, you have stage-4 metastatic prostate cancer. That's an irrational fear because if you're diligent about your health care, this will be caught way before that scenario and your chances of survival with early detection and intervention (if necessary) are really good. I would hate for people to worry that this cancer can just jump out from behind the bushes and do them in.
