Dr. Gil Lederman Interview

Dr Lederman stopped by Mendte in The Morning to breakdown Former President Biden's Cancer Diagnosis and what he can do for it. Larry asks Dr. Lederman if older people should get daily prostate exams. Are PSA exams the most reliable way to detect Prostate Cancer? 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This week, former President Joe Biden let the world know
that he has stage four prostate cancer that has spread
into his bones, and that led to so many questions.
And who better to answer those questions than somebody here
right here on WR seven to ten wor. He is
a radio star. He's treated ten thousands of patients and

(00:24):
nearly every location of cancer, every size, every type of cancer,
large and small, primary or advanced. So we're very proud
to be able to talk to doctor Gil Liederman Radio
Surgery in New York. Sarah, thanks for spending some time
with us.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Lari, thank you. It's an honor to be on your show, well, an.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Honor to have you. We have so many questions. Can
we start just about prostate cancer, the type of cancer
Biden has, and how does somebody realize they have it?

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Okay, so he has a Gleason nine cancer. So prostate
cancer like a lot of cancers we talk about, or
we see friends all they have breast cancer, lung cancer,
and they don't talk much more about it than that.
But prostate cancer is peculiar and different in that some
people have a very slow growing cancer, some people have
a very fast growing cancer. And doctor Gleithin recognized that

(01:17):
years ago and he made a scale. He made a
scale from two to ten and it's based on two
different areas of the prostate that could buy up seed
and they add it up and that's why they're two
to ten. It's kind of funny scale. So one and
one is two is the best in five plus five
equals ten the worst, and he's just about it the worst.
So Gleason nine is just about the worst cancer as

(01:37):
far as aggression that one can personally have. So that's
issue number one. Issue number two is then he has
stage four cancers. So in prostate cancer, in almost every
cancer is a staging system usually from one to four.
One is usually localized and four is metastatic means it's
got into the bloodstream most commonly, and it's traveled. So
for his prostate cancer to go from the prostate to

(01:59):
the means it got in the bloodstream and it's traveling,
which also means it's not curable.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
It sounds like he's had this for some time. Would
is that correct?

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I believe? So his data has come out yesterday that
this last PSA was done in twenty and fourteen, so
it's been more than a decade since PSA, which in
my view as a no no. Some doctors say, oh,
when you're seventy years old, you know you're over the hill.
You're gonna die, don't do any screening. So many people

(02:31):
don't get colonoscopies or mammograms or PSAs. I personally view
it's age discrimination. It's funny because you have glows against
age discrimination. Yet here's a man whose doctors may be
avided by guidelines to say, al the seventies over the hill.
Here's at president United States. We spend billions of dollars
protecting him, and no one could do a five dollar
test to detect this cancer early.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Or he did get the test, it would be hard
to believe, wouldn't it that staff of twenty White House
doctors never tested him for this. My feeling is he's
known he's had this for some time.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
That does Maybe that's one yeah, that's one strategy or
one set of feelings. I see lots of people, high
flyers and low flyers, whose doctors just never get PSAs
and never think about it. They just general doctors. Often.
My brother's a general doctor. I have no problem about
general doctors, but a lot of people are not just
tuned into it. And that's why I'm stressing so much

(03:28):
the need to be screened. And there's just a recent
study of thousands, actually tens of thousands of Europeans of
men who are asked to get screening for prostate cancer
and oh, this is over decades, and the men who
showed up for screening had a twenty percent higher chance
of being alive. The men who never showed up for
one screening had forty five percent greater death. So it's

(03:52):
very clear that screening helps. It's not only for prostate cancer,
but for breast cancer and colon cancer and lung cancer.
Screening saves lives.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, I think the White House doctors should be fired
if they didn't test him for this, But you're right,
maybe it maybe to be.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
A lot of unemployment. There'd be a lot of unemployment
if they fire all the guys. If you think about
he was at Walter Reed, he's been, he was vice president,
he was on his own. He was a free citizen
from twenty seventeen to twenty one, so he was on
his own. He was seeing his own doctors, so he
talk his own doctors, his White House doctors. President doctors,
vice president, doctors, and he was senator. You know, these

(04:29):
may have well been high for years. Then what they're
not telling you is how high his PSA is, So
you know, it may well be that PSA is five thousand,
It maybe ten thousand. It could be very high. Usually
when you have a glease of nine cancer and it's
in the bones, that PSA number. PSA is prostatic specific antigen.
It's a blood test. It's a painless, easy test to get.

(04:52):
Every man should be getting it. Every loved one should
have their man get that, whether it's a wife or
girlfriend or child, and it helps saves lives. Forty five
thousand men die a year of prostate cancer in America.
It's one of the biggest killers.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
If the President was your patient, what course of action
would you recommend at.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
This point today or ten years ago today. Well, I
don't know everything about his case. I just know that
he's got cancer in the bones. He's got cancer obviously
in the prostate. He may have it in a lymphodes.
They didn't talk about the lymphodes. Prostate cancer loves to
go to the lymphodes and then it usually goes to
the bones afterwards. Usually and sometimes it's even more aggressive

(05:31):
than that. Sometimes we see it in the liver or lungs,
so it should be staged up. The best staging test
now would be called a p SMA test. It's a
PET scan specifically for prostate cancer. It's an expensive test.
Most insurance companies will cover it, so I believe every
man with prostate cancer should get a p SMA test.

(05:51):
He probably had an MRI test of the prostate. He
probably did have a bone scan, so those tests should
be done. As far as treatment, He's had a peculiar walk,
and having cancer in the bones mate cause him to
be walking like he's walking. If you look at his
posture and his walking, it's a little bit strange. It's
not a fluid walk. So he may well have had

(06:12):
symptoms from this cancer and his bones for some time.
I would obviously recommend systemic therapy for him. Most men
hate hormonal therapy. Hormonal therapy like lupron or eliguard, take
away testosterone, so men hate it. Most men hate it
because not every man, but most men hate it because
it takes away sexual feelings and erections. It takes away

(06:33):
some of your power. It basically makes a man feel
like he's going through a woman's menopause, hot flashes, weight gain,
and other things. So why it's so much better to
be diagnosed early. If you take two politicians, for example,
you take Rudy Giuliani, he was treated with radiation and
breaking therapy twenty five years ago, and you see him
now and he seems to be doing great, and you

(06:55):
have this man. There's similar ages and this man most
likely will die. That five year survival rate of stage
four cancer prostate it's only thirty five forty percent, So
it's very serious condition. He's got obviously other medical issues
that are competing with this.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
Yeah, it is so sad, and you know, no matter
how you feel politically, your heart goes out to him
and his family for this news. Two things can be
true at the same time. You can feel for him
and disagree with his policies. But I guess the good
part about this for the rest of the country is
you talking about this now. Is people talking about this

(07:33):
now and the PSA test and prostate cancer coming to
the forefront, so people will do the right thing.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
I think it brings a lot of attention. I think
you're totally right. I've had a total number of calls
are off the wall because people are waking up. They say,
as if the President can have stage four prostate cancer,
they can too. And there's a problem with a lot
of men. A lot of men think they're invincible and
cancer can't affect them. And God, God has other plans

(08:02):
for some of us. And men should get and women
should get checked up. And there's so many simple things mammograms, PSA, colonoscopy, CHESS,
cts for people or smokers. There's so many things that
increase survival rate by about forty fifty fifty more people
will be cured of their cancer if they're detected early.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Hey, doctor Leiterman, just amount out of time, but real quick.
How you said you got a lot of phone calls?
How can people get a hold of you?

Speaker 2 (08:30):
Two and two choices, our phone numbers two and two choices,
which you hear all the time on wr They can call,
they can email me, email his gil at rs NY
dot org. If phone calls are best, two and two choices,
they can come in. We accept most insurances. For a
man who should get a PSA, it might well save
his life. If you're the wife or the girlfriend or

(08:51):
the child, get your loved one in here. It's a
simple thing, it's a short thing, it's a painless thing,
and it may well save his life.

Speaker 1 (08:58):
Great advice, Doctor Literman. Thank you, thank you so much
for your time, Doctor Liederman, Radio Surgery in New York.
Two one two choices. Thanks again, Doctor I.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Bless you, Larry, and thank you for inviting me on