Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was diagnosed on Friday with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, his office said in a statement on Sunday.

The diagnosis came after Mr. Biden reported urinary symptoms, which led doctors to find a “small nodule” on his prostate. Mr. Biden’s cancer is “characterized by a Gleason score of 9” with “metastasis to the bone,” the statement said.

The Gleason score is used to describe how prostate cancers look under a microscope; 9 and 10 are the most aggressive. The cancer is Stage 4, which means it has spread.

“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” according to the statement from Mr. Biden’s office, which was unsigned. “The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

Mr. Biden, 82, left office in January as the oldest-serving president in American history. Throughout his presidency, Mr. Biden faced questions about his age and his health, ultimately leading him to abandon his re-election campaign under pressure from his own party.

Prostate cancer experts say that Mr. Biden’s diagnosis is serious, and that once the cancer has spread to the bones — where it tends to go — it cannot be cured. But Dr. Judd Moul, a prostate cancer expert at Duke University, said men whose prostate cancer has spread “can live five, seven, 10 or more years.”

The first line of attack is to cut off the testosterone that feeds prostate cancer. Dr. Moul said that when he started out as a urologist in the 1980s, this was done by removing a man’s testicles. Today, men have a choice of two drugs given by injection that block the testicles from making testosterone or a pill that does the same thing. In addition, men take drugs that block any testosterone that manages to be made despite the drugs that inhibit its production.

Dr. Moul said he sees men Mr. Biden’s age with similar prostate cancer diagnoses on a regular basis. “Survival rates have almost tripled in the last decade,” he said.

President Bola Tinubu on Sunday met with Pope Leo XIV in Vatican City in Rome, Italy.

Their meeting has sparked a possible significant moment in diplomatic and interfaith relations between Nigeria and the Holy See.

Tinubu had arrived the Vatican City on Saturday following an invitation from the Pope.

He was in Rome to witness the official installation of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican City in Rome.

The president is also expected to join other world leaders and dignitaries at a solemn mass marking the beginning of the pontificate of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and the newly elected leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

Upon his arrival, His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State to the Vatican had hosted Tinubu to a dinner.

Pope Leo XIV was elected by a college of Cardinals following the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.

White smoke has risen above the Sistine Chapel, the signal that cardinals have chosen a new pope on the second day of the conclave. His identity, and the name he will take as pontiff, will be revealed soon.

There are 133 voting cardinals, who have all been sequestered inside the Vatican during the conclave. Any one of them needed two-thirds of the vote to become the next pope. Take a look at how the voting process works.

As soon as the news of the white smoke spread through the Italian capital, some people began running through the streets of Rome to get to St. Peter’s Square. People continue to stream into the square from every alley that leads to the Vatican.

In the square itself, people are hugging and crying tears of joy.

While earlier the crowd was angling to get a good view of the Sistine Chapel chimney, they are now inching closer to the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica where the new pope is expected to emerge any moment.

Source: CNN