The Facts About Beau Biden’s Cancer
With mourners gathering in the Delaware Senate to pay their respects Thursday, the death of Vice President Joe Biden’s oldest son Beau at 46 from brain cancer brings to a light a rare, but lethal disease that remains stubbornly resistant to treatment. Beau Biden was originally diagnosed back in 2013. After surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, he went back to work as Delaware’s Attorney General and even had plans to run for Governor in 2016, according to the Washington Post. Sadly, he suffered a recurrence this spring, and his health quickly deteriorated. While death rates from many cancers have declined thanks to better prevention, screening, and treatment, with the overall cancer death rate among Americans falling 22% between 1990 and 2011, death rates from glioblastoma remain virtually unchanged, says Adilia Hormigo, MD, PhD, director of the Neuro-Oncology Program at The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Health System. “The progress has been very limited; we’re kind of stuck with the same treatments.”
-Adilia Hormigo, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, Neuro-Oncology Program, The Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai Health System