Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with an "aggressive form" of prostate cancer, and he and his family are reviewing treatment options, his office said on May 18.

The 82-year-old Biden was diagnosed on May 17 after experiencing urinary symptoms, the statement said.

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Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9...with metastasis to the bone, the statement read.

"While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management," his office added.

Biden, who served eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama and won election over Donald Trump in 2020 for the presidency, declined to run for reelection after receiving criticism for a poor debate characterized by apparent memory losses -- against Trump during the election campaign.

His presidential term ended on January 20, when Trump took office after his victory over Kamala Harris, who had been Bidens vice president.

According to AP, prostate cancers are given a Gleason score that measures how the cancerous cells look compared with normal cells, ranking from 1 to 10. Bidens score of 9 suggests his cancer is among the most aggressive.

Metastasized cancer is much more difficult to treat than cancer that is localized as it can be hard for drugs to reach all tumors and completely eliminate the disease.

Still, in Bidens diagnoses, the cancers require hormones to grow, meaning it can be susceptible to treatment that deprives the tumors of those hormones.