Former President Biden’s aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis is raising questions about whether warning signs could have been caught earlier, and if the current screening recommendations should be changed.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in older men. One in every eight men will be diagnosed in his lifetime. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer kills 35,000 a year, meaning a man dies from prostate cancer every 15 minutes.

Biden’s diagnosis is serious, and while treatable, it can’t be cured. Prostate cancer experts said it’s unclear how long Biden has had cancer. Even if he was screened regularly in recent years, they said it’s not uncommon for cancer to develop without notable symptoms.

“Cancer doesn’t necessarily follow a rule book. It's possible that this came out of the blue, because cancer can do that,” said Alicia Morgans, a prostate cancer specialist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and board member of the advocacy group ZERO Prostate Cancer.

Doctors diagnosed Biden with a prostate nodule last week after he experienced increasing urinary symptoms. By Friday, he was diagnosed with cancer that had metastasized to his bones. It’s not clear if the symptoms were due to cancer, or if the nodule was found as part of a routine screening.

Morgans said even if Biden had been getting regular screening, it is an imperfect science.

“Sometimes our tests are imperfect. And even if we're doing perfect blood tests and perfect imaging and perfect everything, we don't find things,” she said.

Biden left office as the oldest serving president in history, consistently dogged by concerns over his physical health and mental acuity. Prior to the diagnosis last week, his most........

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