How was Joe Biden’s cancer not caught earlier? The news that the former president is battling an aggressive, stage-4 prostate cancer that has spread to the bone ignited a public debate about why a person with peerless access to medical care was diagnosed at such an advanced stage with a disease that is quite common in men his age.

A top oncologist who once worked for former President Joe Biden claimed Monday that his old boss must have had prostate cancer long before Sunday’s public announcement of his diagnosis and suggested the oldest-ever president may even have had the disease for “a decade.

Former President Joe Biden will require "further evaluation" after a small prostate nodule was discovered during a recent physical examination. "In a routine physical exam a small nodule was found in the prostate which necessitated further evaluation," a spokesperson told ABC News.