05 21 25 Alfred Johnson doctor of internal talks about Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is Colorado's Morning News. Former President Joe Biden has
been diagnosed with prostate cancer and given what has been
considered an unrivaled medical care, some are asking the question
how was this not discoveredor cut earlier.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Doctor of Internal Medicine at Johnson Medical Associates, Al Johnson
joins us now to talk more about it, discussing prostate
health for you and your loved ones. Doctor Johnson, thank
you so much for your time this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
Oh you're welcome. It's my privilege.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Let's start with the definition. What is prostate cancer and
how is it caused?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Well, we don't know exactly how it's caused. We know
that the prostate gets inflamed and in some people one
out of eight males will get prostate cancer. It's probably
a whole lot of environmental type situations as well as
infections that stimulate the cancer actual growth, just as any

(00:51):
solid tumor cancer.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Doctor, my late father died of prostate cancer. Will it
metastasize to the bones? It was found and I believe
nineteen ninety four. He passed away in nineteen ninety nine.
But we've come a long way with the diagnoses and
the protocols for prostates since then have we not exactly?

Speaker 3 (01:08):
And then thankful for that. Now there's a free PSA
which you can get with your PSA that looks as
the probability of the elevation of the PSA being due
to cancer. Also, there are specific MRIs done for prostate
cancer that can better define it before a biopsy is done.

(01:32):
Monitoring unfortunately has been put off after seventy by certain
criteria based on risk benefit ratios. But if you're the
one at risk, it doesn't make sense, so it makes
sense to get your PSA checked yearly. Otherwise you end
up in the situation where President Biden has, where he

(01:55):
hasn't been checked for ten years and now has metastatic cancer.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
And doctor that be the answer to this next question
here when we talk about former President Biden's situation, he
has access to some of the best doctors in the world.
So was this simply missed because of the age requirements
of when they decide to screen and not screen.

Speaker 3 (02:14):
It's hard to know what their thought process is, but
that could be one explanation for it. Because of the
guidelines that have been put out by different medical organizations,
and again I fight with the guidelines all the time,
because they are for groups of people, not for individuals.

(02:36):
And in medicine now we tend to all get lumped
in the groups instead of really doctors paying attention to
what the individual needs. Our risk factors are desires.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Are doctor wood group specific to PSAs. And again I
reference my father, but he was taking PSAs and there
were no elevated levels, but he still had it and
ended up passing away from him. So even the SA
test they can point out markers, but they're not and
maybe they have in the last thirty years, they're not
always an indicator that you have the levels or you're

(03:08):
in a bad situation with prostate cancer.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Correct, Yeah, exactly, And that's why physical exam is still
important for prostate cancer. There are some people in the
maintaining health world that look at doing what they call
whole body scans, where they are a low radiation CT
scan of your chest and abdomen and pelvis to help

(03:33):
pick up early tumors that are not detectable by blood
tests or any other way.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And does age complement Does age complicate things when it
comes to treatment options? Is there limited treatment options for
someone like President Biden who's now eighty two, not much.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
There's some of the medications that do affect the heart
that they use for prostate cancer, but those are some
of the newer on trial medications. So if anybody has
prostate cancer, they're looking at treatment, look at all the options.
There's some good websites that describe different types of treatment

(04:15):
that can be done for prostate cancer. There's standard radiation,
there's proton radiation which was started years ago at Low
Melinda in California, which had less tissue damage from the radiation.
There's robotic surgery. So there's many different types of treatment
that can be done.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Since Gina referenced to President's age, I'll just ask the
inglorious question is stage four is that considered terminal lore
and does age play a factor than that versus a
younger person with stage four.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Well, stage four is not good, as you well know,
and it this depends how aggressive it is and how
well it responds to treatment. There are some reports that
it's testosterone driven, so if they reduce his testosterone and
given testosterone blocking drugs, you can see regression or the

(05:04):
slowing of the process. And then it's a matter of
will prostate cancer actually be the one item or the
item that actually takes your life or will it be
something else? And that depends on each individual and what
their health risk are.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Quick two final questions from us here. One, if I
understand correctly, are there elevated prostate diagnoses here in Colorado
and Denver? And I some people attribute that to out
to you. I don't know if that's the case. And secondly,
i'm somebody again because my father had it. You recommend
men of all certain ages, at least definitely above fifty
going and get a prostate exam. How frequently should they

(05:41):
do that?

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Typically yearly? And get a PSA and a free PSA
which kind of helps you look at because you can
have a normal PSA but a low free PSA which
puts you at the greater cancer risk.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
Doctor of Internal Medicine at Johnson Medical Associates, it's doctor L. Johnson.
Thank you so much for your insight this morning.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
We appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
Oh, you're welcome. Thank you,