A politician who built a long career on talking — rope lines, Senate floor speeches, town halls that ran past the schedule — now plans to let the pages of a book speak for him.
Joe Biden, the 46th president, said in a lengthy post on X on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2026, that he will scale back the promotional tour for his memoir, “Promise Me, America,” because of the aggressive prostate cancer that has spread to his bones and that he continues to live with.
Little, Brown and Co. puts the book on sale Nov. 17. Biden, 83, wrote that he will take part in fewer conversations about it than he had planned and will trust the pages to make his case.
“While writing the book, I was diagnosed with cancer, a disease known all too well to millions of Americans and their families,” Biden wrote. “Some days are better than others. It hasn’t stopped me. But sometimes it slows me down,” he continued.
His medical team remains encouraged by his response to treatment, he said. He thanked supporters for their prayers, which he said have meant a great deal to him, to his wife, Jill, and to the rest of the family.
Biden closed the post with a passage about the country and then with advice from his late father that he said has guided him since boyhood. “We are blessed. America is the most unique nation on earth. Unlike other countries, we’re built on an idea. An idea bigger than any ocean. More powerful than any army. Stronger than any tyrant or dictator. That idea? All of us are created equal. Promise Me, America, we’ll never forget it,” Biden wrote on X. The last line read: “Champ, when you get knocked down, get up.”
What the Gleason 9 Meant
The cancer surfaced about four months after Biden left the White House in January 2025. Worsening urinary symptoms sent him to doctors, who examined him and found a nodule on his prostate.
Doctors diagnosed him on Friday, May 16, 2025, by which point the prostate cancer had already reached his bones. His office made the diagnosis public two days later, on Sunday, May 18, 2025, describing a Gleason score of 9, Grade Group 5, with metastasis to the bone.
The Gleason scale in practice runs from 6 to 10, which makes his 9 the second-highest score. Pathologists grade prostate cells by how far they have strayed from healthy tissue, then add two grades together. Under the newer international system, Grade Group 5 covers both 9s and 10s and is the most aggressive of the five groups.
The May 2025 statement carried one encouraging point: the cancer appeared to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management. The cancer has since been described as stage four, and Biden completed treatment for it in October 2025.
The Bidens posted to Facebook when the diagnosis became public: “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places.”
Ringing the Bell in Philadelphia
Biden spokesperson Kelly Scully said on Oct. 11, 2025, that he was undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment. On Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, Scully confirmed that the course of radiation had been completed that day.
He rang the bell at Penn Medicine Radiation Oncology in Philadelphia, where he had been treated for several weeks. The ritual marks the end of a course of treatment, not the end of the disease.
A video in early September 2025 showed a healing wound on his forehead. A spokesperson afterward confirmed he had undergone Mohs surgery to remove skin cancer.
In a message for Prostate Awareness Month, Biden urged men to see their doctors for early detection, noting that his own disease had already spread to his bones by the time it was found. With early detection, he said, the five-year survival rate is close to 100%. The radiation from the previous fall, in his words, worked as intended.
“It’s Really Sad to Watch”
His son Hunter Biden offered a blunter account in an August 2026 BBC interview. Hunter Biden said he wished his father would complain more, because his health is not good, and said the cancer had metastasized into his bones and further, leaving him in pain. “It’s really sad to watch,” he added.
Jill Biden, the former first lady, told NBC News: “I think Joe will live with cancer till the rest of his life.”
She returned to the subject on “Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa” on SiriusXM in August 2026, saying her husband was “doing okay” and that “he will forever live with cancer, and we have to be mindful of it every three months, testing and medicines.”
Critics in both parties have questioned whether Biden and his circle were candid about his health while he was in office. His team denied any cover-up.
The Book He Let Slip
Little, Brown announced the on-sale date on July 15, 2026. Biden posted an announcement video on X the same day and said his treatment was going really well. The release lands two weeks after the 2026 midterm elections.
He had let the project slip a month earlier. At a June 2026 stop promoting his wife’s book, “A View from the East Wing,” Biden said his own memoir would be out in September.
The title echoes his 2017 book “Promise Me, Dad,” which he wrote about the death of his elder son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
The memoir takes up his decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy, military actions in Afghanistan and Ukraine, and the aftermath of Jan. 6 at the Capitol. Hachette Book Group says the book also reveals the deeply agonizing calculation behind his summer 2024 decision to step aside from the presidential race.
A Little, Brown spokesperson said in July 2026 that a book tour and interviews were planned. Those plans are now smaller.
Biden suspended his re-election bid in the summer of 2024 after a disastrous debate performance against President Donald Trump, then endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. The oldest man to serve as president, he spent much of his term dogged by questions about his age and health, and he repeatedly pushed back on accusations about his mental acuity and memory.