Althouse: "I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has... that has also spread to my bones.... My life expectancy is: maybe this summer...."

May 19, 2025

"I have the same cancer that Joe Biden has... that has also spread to my bones.... My life expectancy is: maybe this summer...."

Coffee With Scott Adams 5/19/25 https://t.co/miG4jySdsD
— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) May 19, 2025

"Weirdly, since it's old news for me, I've just sort of processed it.... And I have to say, you know, everybody has to die... and it's kind of civilized that you know about how long you have...."

56 comments:

RCOCEAN II said...: Sad news. And scary. 67 is way too young. And I sorta thought with the PSA tests, etc. that prostate cancer could be caught in time. Guess not.

Even sadder is that Adams had to suffer for years with all kinds of weird aliments. IRC, he couldn't speak for years.

To lose Adams at 67, after losing Rush at 70, is a real heart-breaker. But that's life, or should I say death.; 5/19/25, 12:22 PM
n.n said...: Evolution.; 5/19/25, 12:24 PM
Peachy said...: Oh dang. I'm sorry to hear this about Scott. He's a good egg.; 5/19/25, 12:24 PM
rehajm said...: One must weigh the medical predictability against the quantity and magnitude of incentives to cover it up. On that context I’m siding with the internet people…; 5/19/25, 12:27 PM
rrsafety said...: @RCOCEAN II as you age, the PSA test getsless predictive of actual cancer. There are so many false positives among older men that it becomes more or less useless in finding actual cancer.; 5/19/25, 12:34 PM
Mike (MJB Wolf) said...: I find it interesting that he chose today as part of his being compassionate or at least pushing back on what he sees as cruelty towards the Bidens (online life is a sewer swim --editor) towards Biden, and he "made it past" his step-daughter's wedding, which was the goal he set. It's also notable that he has kept it to himself for years.; 5/19/25, 12:35 PM
mindnumbrobot said...: This breaks my heart. I lost my father-in-law to prostate cancer at age 70. He was just a great man whom I loved very much. Watching cancer take him away was very difficult. May God comfort Adams and his family.; 5/19/25, 12:37 PM
cf said...: I heard a whistle on my computer and went to see what it was. Somehow this person I did not know had entered my computer by way of Twitter, using their then live video platform at the time (whatever happened to that?). It was this @ScottAdamsSays fellah, and he had a lot of surprising things to say. (Was he already predicting Trump was going to be President? That came pretty quickly)
I was charmed and hooked right away, I daresay it was the first of his hours.

The next few years I could not miss a morning of him, and certainly through Covid and all the weird challenges, including seeing him in real time have to mitigate his words to stay online.

Hero and Humor and Enlightenment, ever an inspiration, G^dspeed, Mr. Adams.; 5/19/25, 12:43 PM
cf said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/19/25, 12:43 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: At one time, Scott Adams stated he smoked MJ every night before he went to bed. And also in 2007 posted that MJ might stop cancer. I'll leave it at that.; 5/19/25, 12:51 PM
Ralph L said...: I had to ask for my first PSA at 62, which turned out very low, after my older brother had one rather high. Apparently, some doctors now stop doing them at 75, figuring if you get it that late, you're more likely to die of something else.

Is Adams one of those men who avoid doctors for decades?; 5/19/25, 12:51 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Googling, it seems that PSA test only finds 3/4 incidents of prostate cancer. You can have "normal" PSA levels and still get it. Oh well.

You'd think Adams would've caught a break after all the grief he's had. But I guess things aren't like that. There is no "fairness".; 5/19/25, 12:54 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Ralph - my impression is that Adams was very involved in medicine and staying fit IRC, he was eating a special diet, etc.; 5/19/25, 12:56 PM
Skeptical Voter said...: As I age (I'll be 82 in the fall) I get curious about just what will take me off this mortal coil. I know there will be something. And it would be nice to get a diagnosis of "X months to live" from whatever it might be.; 5/19/25, 12:56 PM
PB said...: Scott brought us great humor and rational thinking.; 5/19/25, 1:03 PM
Mike Yancey said...: Yeah, that was particularly upsetting this morning. I’ve listened to Scott for some years now. He’s been important for putting some things in their correct places in my own mind. His is a voice I will miss very much.
But… there’ll be some time until the end.; 5/19/25, 1:05 PM
Jamie said...: What sad news. Although it sounds as if he's had a while to process it, which might help. Or not - what do I know?; 5/19/25, 1:07 PM
Big Mike said...: ” ... and it's kind of civilized that you know about how long you have...."

You mean like the guy on death row?; 5/19/25, 1:13 PM
Lawcruiter said...: Wishing Scott a peaceful journey as he transitions to the inevitable. He has played a big role in our political discourse, and I am grateful for the many "Dilbert"-inspired laughs. Godspeed, Scott.; 5/19/25, 1:25 PM
Temujin said...: Yes, this sucks. I enjoy his different views on the things we all see. He's seemingly lived a full life. He did a lot and had a positive effect on many people.

I lost a good friend to cancer over this past weekend. Cancer is awful and...my word, one would think we could figure out why there is so much of it and how we can beat it.; 5/19/25, 1:26 PM
Leland said...: Late stage cancer is one of those things that makes me open to MAID. Unfortunately, it creates the grey area that everything else wants to occupy such that 18-year-olds with depression get included. Regardless, cancer is a bad way to go, and I have known too many brave people that fought it to the end.; 5/19/25, 1:45 PM
Narr said...: My younger brother has been diagnosed with prostate cancer--he told us a few weeks ago when we celebrated his 66th b.d.

The doctors say he's got the least aggressive form, FWIW.

Too bad for Adams--I didn't follow him but consider Dilbert a creation of genius.; 5/19/25, 1:55 PM
Quaestor said...: It's unfortunate we lost Dr. Kennedy, one of the few, and perhaps the only preeminent physician and surgeon to have been a regular Althousian. Neither I nor Scott Adams have the qualifications to express a meaningful opinion about Biden's cancer. However, since Adams has blazed the trail, I might as well follow it.

The consternation generated by the news of Biden's cancer is not a manifestation of a lack of sympathy for Biden, at least not generally. Though there may be those who growl "Serves him right!", I've not heard anyone say so. (The lack of gratitude shown for Donald Trump's narrow escape last year, and the absence of sympathy for Corey Comperatore was both monstrous and sadly typical of many hardcore Democrats.)

On the contrary, Republican outrage is simmering against those who may have conspired to hide the President's terminal condition for naked political reasons. From the standpoint of last spring when the usual suspects were struggling against the growing conviction among undecided voters of Biden's cognitive degeneration, the real power center of the Democratic Party, the professional bureaucracy, most likely realized their best hope of their continued control of the Administrative State was best assured under a Kamala Harris presidency. However, being an unelectable giggle machine, the only way Harris could attain that office would be through the automatic process of succession. A terminally ill Joe Biden re-elected would assure that succession nicely if the state of his physical health could be hidden from the electorate. Thus we have Dr. Kevin O'Connor's memorandum of 8 July 2024 that makes no mention of cancer. Either O'Connor did not perform any test for prostate cancer, a gross instance of malpractice given Biden's age and the history of cancer in his bloodline (Beau Biden died of glioblastoma in 2015), or the test results were suppressed, a shameful breaking of faith with the American people. We pay a handsome salary to provide the President with a personal physician not entirely for the comfort and convenience of the Chief Executive, but for our own safety as a nation and as individuals.

If the diagnosis was suppressed, I doubt Joe Biden had anything to do with it. In fact, by 2024 I doubt Biden was even cognizant of his condition just as he was largely oblivious of many other details. In a speech given in 2022, Biden claimed to be a cancer victim, however, the White House staff dismissed that as a gaff or an exaggeration regarding a few pre-cancerous skin lesions. There was no further mention of Biden regarding any form of cancer until now, nearly three years later. Why?; 5/19/25, 2:05 PM
tommyesq said...: As I age (I'll be 82 in the fall) I get curious about just what will take me off this mortal coil. I know there will be something. And it would be nice to get a diagnosis of "X months to live" from whatever it might be.

Unfortunately, such a diagnosis merely puts a cap on your years. Something could still bite you in the ass in the interim.; 5/19/25, 2:17 PM
Quaestor said...: "You can have 'normal' PSA levels and still get it."

Yes, but there are many other indications that manifest as prostate cancer progresses into Stage 4. The suggestion that Biden's cancer was completely asymptomatic last July when Kevin O'Connor's "clean bill of Presidential health and competency" memorandum circulated is difficult to swallow.; 5/19/25, 2:18 PM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/19/25, 2:33 PM
Quaestor said...: This situation is reminiscent of the case of President Grover Cleveland during the early months of his second and non-consecutive term of office. In 1893, Cleveland had a secret surgery to remove cancerous tissue from his mouth and jaw performed not in a hospital, but aboard a private yacht. Apparently the only anesthesia was ether. The secrecy was intended to shield an already panicked economy from further distress, or so goes the account. In any case, the crisis was withheld from the We the People, thus setting the precedent for even greater deceptions.; 5/19/25, 2:36 PM
Kakistocracy said...: The Althouse commentariat — having mastered large language models, toilet paper supply chain logistics, epidemiology, and balloon aerodynamics, would now like to offer their thoughts on Biden’s cancer diagnosis…👨‍⚕️; 5/19/25, 2:42 PM
mikee said...: My personal, fortunately slow and readily treated prostate cancer exhibited two years of ambigously increasing enzyme tests, within norms, followed by a failure and biopsy to prove the cancer. That was two years of knowing it was likely coming and then confirmation.

My guess is they let the cancer progress without tests for confirmation of diagnosis, the same way they let him serve as president with increasing and very obvious dementia. Jill Biden is equally a monster just for the latter, let alone the former.; 5/19/25, 2:43 PM
mikee said...: Quaestor, in 1893 the ONLY anesthetics were ether and chloroform, dripped onto a cloth the patient breathed through. My son was born in Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, named for the pioneer surgeon who introduced ether as an anesthetic there in about 1840. My wife had an epidural, and appreciated it very very much.; 5/19/25, 2:48 PM
James K said...: The Grover Cleveland case seems a bit more benign, no pun intended, in that as I understand it, they weren't sure what it was until they operated, and while it turned out to be cancerous, it was non-lethal. He recovered and went on to live another 13 years, eventually succumbing to something unrelated.; 5/19/25, 2:50 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Crap. Crap. I worked briefly with Scott, doing diligence on a health startup that he ended up investing in. Seemed like a solid, curious, intelligent guy. Bad news.
And I'm two years older than him, with a family history of prostate cancer.; 5/19/25, 3:03 PM
chuck said...: I know there will be something.

I will likely die in the next ten years. I don't know from what, but someday that shoe will drop. It is what it is.; 5/19/25, 3:03 PM
Roger von Oech said...: Scott Adams’ announcement today of his cancer made me very sad. Since 2015, he’s been one of my top 5 people on the internet. He has been (and is) a real triple threat: informative and often biting tweets, to-the-point topical cartoons, and entertaining podcasts.; 5/19/25, 3:11 PM
Peachy said...: Kak-a- phony

Old Crook liar Barisma Chi-Com Joe - no one cares.
Is that a mind crime?; 5/19/25, 3:20 PM
Jaq said...: I hope he enjoys his few remaining months. He is the one who pointed out that a lot of people do "word thinking," which is what LLMs do, LLMs don't think the way we do. I suppose they might have a better chance if we had more powerful computers, but every layer of connections that we ask it to make, makes the computational load even more ruinous. Somebody today talked about an LLM informing them about the terrible nature of tariffs, but then when asked about the multiplier effects of bringing jobs home, it waxed poetically in accurate economic terms. In other words, the LLM did not have enough layers to make the connections between two concepts that it understood so that it could weigh them together as implications of the original question. So they only think in words. I am not going to miss Scott yet, but I will miss him.; 5/19/25, 3:29 PM
Eva Marie said...: “My guess is they let the cancer progress without tests for confirmation of diagnosis, the same way they let him serve as president with increasing and very obvious dementia.”
This would be terrible if true.; 5/19/25, 4:20 PM
Jaq said...: It's not impossible that the doctors didn't know, and if we were not talking about an inveterate liar and venal opportunist, one who won his first Senate election by getting the mob to call a wildcat strike, solely for the reason of preventing a circular his opponent had run in the Sunday paper, laying out his history of sleaze, then sure, we would give that hypothetical person the benefit of the doubt, no matter how unlikely.

But what this cry of "you people are not cancer experts" reminds me of is when they told us that COVID was definitely not a lab leak, and we shouldn't question the official story, no matter how absurdly improbable the set of coincidences that it would have required was.; 5/19/25, 4:48 PM
Jaq said...: The wildcat strike was newspaper delivery drivers delivering the Sunday paper, the Sunday before Election Day.; 5/19/25, 4:49 PM
Tina Trent said...: Norm MacDonald and Scott Adams.

Somewhere out there, it's going to get pretty damn funny.

Godspeed. What a decent man.; 5/19/25, 4:51 PM
Tank said...: Pretty sure I heard about his daily podcast here at Althouse. Been listening every day or two or three since that time. Always some interesting thoughts, plus a some humor. He will be missed when he is gone.; 5/19/25, 5:01 PM
Dave Begley said...: I recall during his term as vice president that Biden said he was going to cure cancer. It was his moon shot.; 5/19/25, 5:01 PM
Aggie said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/19/25, 5:14 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Sad to hear about Scott's diagnosis. He's a good guy.; 5/19/25, 5:39 PM
Larry J said...: “ As I age (I'll be 82 in the fall) I get curious about just what will take me off this mortal coil. I know there will be something. And it would be nice to get a diagnosis of "X months to live" from whatever it might be.”

Whenever I hear of a doctor telling a patient that “you have X months to live”, I’m reminded of my Uncle Charles. He was told he only had 6 months to live (congestive heart failure). He lived for several years, which was long enough to see his only daughter get married and have a daughter of her own. Medical science just isn’t that precise.; 5/19/25, 5:57 PM
AZ Bob said...: I heard one report that Biden didn't include PSA scores in releasing his medical check up records in early 2024 when he was still running for re=election. The report said Obama, Bush and Trump did release their PSA results.

Was Biden's score suppressed? It is hard to believe he did not have the PSA included in his routine blood tests.

My internist always included a PSA check in my annual physical. At one point we started to see a spike and he referred me to an urologist. I tested with him and got a 3.3 score. He said I should come back and see him in a year. Three months later, I did my annual physical and my internist thankfully included PSA in the blood work. The score was 4.4 which is a big jump in a short time.

I had a biopsy and my Gleason scores were 7's and 8's. I didn't hesitate to have a prostatectomy. I was 68 at the time. It's been five years since and I am fortunate to report no cancer has returned.

My urologist joked that he never tells a patient they are cured from cancer until they die of something else.; 5/19/25, 5:58 PM
RJ said...: I used to get regular feedback on my PSA number, but I realized this year that I had not heard about it for probably almost a decade. So I asked my Primary Care person what was up. She said that after 70, they don't bother with it much on the theory that something else will kill you before prostate cancer will. But she had put it in the annual blood test, and was able to tell me my result was very good. It kind of seems like the protocol as it stands now is okay with thinning the herd.; 5/19/25, 6:33 PM
gadfly said...: Some additional information that I dug-up about metastatic prostate cancer after watching Scott Adams' sad disclosure. He mentioned Proton therapy as a possible help in dealing with his cancer. It is a type of radiation treatment that uses high-energy protons to target cancerous tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. It is particularly beneficial for tumors located near critical organs, and it may cause fewer side effects when compared to traditional radiation therapy.

CyberKnife is a form of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) that can be used to treat metastatic prostate cancer by delivering precise radiation to tumors while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue. This treatment is typically considered for patients with localized tumors or those with metastases that are causing symptoms, and it may be part of a broader treatment plan that includes hormone therapy or chemotherapy.

Now let’s talk about Proton Therapy for prostate cancer.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, proton beam radiation therapy may be safe and equally as effective as traditional radiation.

While traditional radiation delivers radiation beams to the tumor, the radiation spreads beyond the tumor site, which can damage nearby healthy tissue. Proton therapy is more targeted, reducing the risk of damage to the treated area.

Proton therapy involves charged particles called protons rather than the X-rays that are used in conventional radiation therapy, and part of the treatment.

With Proton therapy, doctors determine the point in a patient’s body where the proton releases its energy to maximize beam exposure to cancer cells while minimizing exposure to normal tissue.

Proton beam therapy uses lower doses of radiation as compared to CyberKnife. Therefore, requiring more treatments over a four-to-six-week period.

Proton therapy usually requires 20-to-25 treatments (compared to nine visits) with typical outpatient treatments lasting less than five minutes each.

Interestingly, these treatments are approved for prostate cancer patients.

One more note: Adams mentioned that Biden admitted several years ago that he had cancer - and Joe did - but that was skin cancer which would have produced a PSA score.; 5/19/25, 6:38 PM
Big Mike said...: I’m reminded of my Uncle Charles. He was told he only had 6 months to live (congestive heart failure). He lived for several years, which was long enough to see his only daughter get married and have a daughter of her own. Medical science just isn’t that precise.

I had a friend who got the bad news that his “mild arthritis” was stage 4 bone cancer and was told he had just 6 months to live. However after replacing his entire femur with one made of a polymer he lasted almost four whole years. He lost his fight in 2020 and COVID regulations prevented him from having the funeral he deserved.; 5/19/25, 7:00 PM
curt said...: Narr — tell your brother to look into proton therapy. It worked for me 15 years ago. No fuss, no pain, and no after effects.; 5/19/25, 7:34 PM
Aggie said...: @RJ "She said that after 70, they don't bother with it much on the theory that.... It kind of seems like the protocol as it stands now is okay with thinning the herd. " That's attributing more than simple greed, cutting tests that some administrator has decided is 'unnecessary'.

As my mom aged, my sister and I discovered that you really have to adopt an advocate's mindset when you start dealing with the American medical industry. We walk with our records, all of them, and we don't stop asking questions. When you ask questions and refuse to go away, the medical personnel, most of who are very nice, eventually realize that they're going to have to recognize you as a person instead of an annoyance. It's because most of them are hugely overworked. It's a shift of perception, and you have to walk them through it every time. Once you do it, you'll receive a different kind of health care. Cancer survivor talking, here.; 5/19/25, 7:43 PM
Narr said...: I'll mention it, curt. Thanks for the suggestion.; 5/19/25, 7:59 PM
walter said...: Adams' might be a recent diagnosis. I remember him talking about having major, inexplicable back issues not too long ago.; 5/19/25, 8:12 PM
walter said...: http://metabolictherapy.com/
https://tomseyfried.com/
Thomas Seyfried Email & Phone Number | Professor -
Thomas Seyfried phone number is 16176996540 and 16175523563. How to contact Thomas Seyfried? To contact Thomas Seyfried send an email to thomas.seyfried@bc.edu.; 5/19/25, 8:54 PM
wildswan said...: It was nice of Scott Adams to spend some of his remaining time reminding people that whatever the truth about Biden's cancer the man is dying now and we should behave with some kindness to him. It's a better way to be.
It's no longer possible to believe in the Biden Presidency, it wasn't him. And it's no longer possible to believeanything said by the people around him who claimed he was running things and by the people who accepted the lies. But this doesn't mean the collapse of the world system. The DC people seem to think we won't be able to eat or drink if we learn there was a cloud of liars around a sick, old man and that was the American government for awhile. But I agree with Samuel Johnson - Government malfeasance and fecklessness is disgusting but even when it becomes an overwhelming reality, it is something that people can easily absorb. They have their own hopes and dreams to attend to. As Johnson said: "How small a part of all the human heart endures/ The part that kings or laws can cause or cure." Furthermore, in this country at this time we can look at the positive signs that come from the Trump administration, Doge, Mars, Abraham Accords; investment in this country; fair trade, manufacturing's return, energy investment, a challenge to reverse racism. There's a lot to think about besides one old, sick man and the bevy of grifters and liars his sickness enabled.; 5/19/25, 10:30 PM
Oso Negro said...: As others did, I learned about the Adams podcasts here. I have enjoyed listening to them just as much as I enjoyed the Dilbert comic in the days when I read newspapers. He was a great contributor to American society. Joe Biden on the other hand, should be remembered as a great taker from American society. As much as he and his money grubbing relatives and henchpeople could make off with.; 5/19/25, 11:03 PM