Cancer Doctor Weighs In On Biden's Diagnosis, How Much Longer He Might Live
As questions swirl around President Joe Biden’s health following the announcement of his prostate cancer diagnosis, national media outlets quickly turned to one of the country’s leading specialists to help describe what the diagnosis means — and what comes next.
Dr. Geoffrey Sonn, a urologic oncologist at Stanford University with extensive experience treating prostate and kidney cancers, has emerged as a key medical voice weighing in on the president’s condition. Sonn has spoken to several major outlets in recent days, offering a sober but reassuring explanation of how advanced prostate cancer is typically managed and why the diagnosis, while serious, is not necessarily a near-term death sentence.
Professional headshot of Geoffrey Sonn, MD, urologic oncologist at Stanford, Photo Credit: Geoffrey A. Sonn, MD/X
One of the most important distinctions Sonn emphasized is that metastatic prostate cancer, while not considered curable, is often controllable for extended periods of time. In interviews with outlets including Politico and The Los Angeles Times, Sonn pointed to major advances over the past decade that have transformed patient outcomes. New generations of hormone-based medications, he explained, can significantly slow the disease’s progression and allow patients to live productive lives for years.
Sonn contrasted prostate cancer with far more aggressive malignancies, noting that prostate cancer behaves very differently than cancers like pancreatic cancer, which often carry a grim prognosis measured in months. According to Sonn, prostate cancer patients can remain stable for long stretches with proper treatment, particularly when modern therapies are combined.
Joe Biden in an episode of The View, Photo Credit: The View/Youtube
In comments reported by The San Francisco Chronicle, Sonn said the president will almost certainly be placed on hormone therapy designed to suppress testosterone, which fuels prostate cancer growth. Lowering those hormone levels can shrink tumors and delay further spread. While individual responses vary, Sonn noted that many patients live a decade or longer after a metastatic diagnosis.
The Stanford physician also highlighted how treatment strategies have evolved. What was once a single-line approach has now expanded into combination therapies that pair traditional androgen deprivation therapy with newer drugs that attack the disease on multiple fronts. Those advances, Sonn explained, have added years to life expectancy for many patients.
Dr. Geoffrey Sonn delivering a speech at American Urological Association, Photo Credit: stanford_urology/X
Sonn also addressed questions surrounding cancer screening and why Biden’s condition may not have been detected earlier. Speaking with The Hill, he noted that routine PSA testing becomes less common as men reach their late 70s and 80s. Medical guidelines generally discourage aggressive screening at advanced ages due to competing health risks and the slow-growing nature of many prostate cancers.
While Sonn is not involved in Biden’s personal medical care, his commentary has helped cut through speculation and panic at a moment when the public is hungry for clear, credible information. His explanations underscore a key takeaway: prostate cancer, even when advanced, is often a long-term medical challenge rather than an immediate crisis.
Dr. Geoffrey Sonn at the Blue Cure Men’s Health Podcast, Photo Credit: Gabe Canales/X
The attention on Sonn’s expertise has also placed a spotlight on Stanford Urology’s role in shaping national conversations about men’s health. The department has built a reputation for combining cutting-edge research with patient-focused care, and its faculty regularly contribute to discussions on major health issues facing Americans.
As the president begins treatment, experts like Sonn are reminding the public that medical innovation has dramatically changed what a prostate cancer diagnosis looks like in 2025 — offering realism, not alarmism, at a critical moment.
Top DHS Special Agent And His Wife Found Dead
A Department of Homeland Security special agent and his wife were found dead in their New Jersey home in what appears to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors said.
Police in Sayreville responded to the couple’s home on Glynn Court around 8 p.m. July 3 and found Kelly Latauro, 46, dead inside the residence, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Her husband, 52-year-old Christopher Latauro, was discovered dead in the backyard.
Both appear to have been shot.
Authorities said Christopher is believed to be the shooter and the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Police told residents to keep away from Glynn Court, from Deerfield Road to Scarlet Drive, briefly because of police activity.
The area was reopened about 40 minutes later, but police remained on scene.
According to NJ101.5, citing DHS records from 2019 and 2020, Christopher was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities have not said what may have sparked the violence.
Kelly’s sister-in-law Robyn Perlman-Spencer confirmed her death in a Facebook post on July 7, remembering her in a heartbreaking tribute.
“As many of you may now know, my beautiful sister in law Kelly Iatauro was senselessly and suddenly taken from us on Friday. Kelly was a bright light- kind, thoughtful, hysterical, inappropriate, and just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She left a lasting impression on anyone that was lucky enough to know her,” Robyn wrote in part.
Sayreville police confirmed officers responded to the Glynn Court residence on July 3 and found both people dead of gunshot wounds.
The incident is being treated as a murder-suicide, and Christopher is suspected to be the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the case.
What began as a heavy police response to a deadly scene left two people dead and the quiet Middlesex County neighborhood stunned.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened inside the home leading up to the gunfire.
Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made headlines last week with an election-related announcement.
Mullin on Friday said officials who don’t cooperate with the administration’s election security efforts may be slapped with fines — and potentially prison time.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections — and they chose not to — then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Mullin also promised DHS would work to “speed up our security enhancements” for states.
He vowed to hold up federal election security grants until state officials took steps the administration demanded, including running their voter registration lists through a system that checks for non-citizen voters on the rolls.
Mullin made his comments after President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday night, when he repeated already known concerns about the security of voting systems, alleged Chinese efforts to get into voter rolls, and aired old gripes about the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In his remarks on Friday, the DHS secretary focused on DHS’s work with states to secure election systems and scrub voter registration rolls for fraud and concerns about noncitizen voting.
The Justice Department also sent letters this month threatening prosecution to election officials across the country if they don’t remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
On Friday, Mullin seemed to suggest that the agency was able to estimate the numbers using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and said 23 states are already working with DHS to analyze voter rolls.
And he criticized the legal challenges that are hindering the administration’s efforts: Last month, a judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of information about Americans, including Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
