US President Donald Trump has led a bipartisan outpouring of concern for his predecessor Joe Biden, after his diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform late on Sunday (US time).

“We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”

The sympathetic statement came only hours after Biden’s concerning diagnosis emerged.

It also came as Trump had otherwise continued his attacks on his long-time political rival. Only two days ago, he ripped Biden for being “hapless and cognitively impaired” following leaked audio from Biden’s 2023 interview with then-special counsel Robert Hur, where the former president struggled to recall key events.

Earlier, Biden’s office said a prostate nodule was found after he was seen by doctors last week amid urinary symptoms.

Biden, 82, was diagnosed with prostate cancer on Friday, with the cancer cells having spread to the bone.

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

“The president and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what’s known as a Gleason score.

The scores range from six to 10, with eight, nine and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was nine, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.

When prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it often spreads to the bones. Metastasised cancer is much harder to treat than localised cancer because it can be hard for drugs to reach all the tumours and completely root out the disease.

However, when prostate cancers need hormones to grow, as in Biden’s case, they can be susceptible to treatment that deprives the tumours of hormones.

Outcomes have improved in recent decades and patients can expect to live with metastatic prostate cancer for four or five years, said Matthew Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Centre.

“It’s very treatable, but not curable,” Smith said. “Most men in this situation would be treated with drugs and would not be advised to have either surgery or radiation therapy.”

As well as Trump, other political leaders have sent Biden their wishes for his recovery.

Barack Obama – to whom Biden was vice president – said he and his wife were thinking of the entire Biden family.

“Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery,” he wrote on X.

Biden’s own vice president, Kamala Harris, said on social media she was keeping him in her family’s “hearts and prayers”.

“Joe is a fighter – and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership,” Harris wrote.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “very sorry” to hear of the diagnosis.

“All the very best to Joe, his wife Jill and their family, and wishing the president swift and successful treatment,” he said.

Biden’s health was a dominant concern for US voters during his presidential term. He abandoned his bid for a second term after a calamitous debate performance against Trump last June.

Harris became the Democrats’ presidential nominee, ultimately losing to Trump.

Biden has again rejected concerns about his age in recent days, despite reporting in the new book Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson that aides shielded the public from the extent of his decline while he was president.

In February 2023, Biden had a skin lesion removed from his chest that was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer. And in November 2021, he had a polyp removed from his colon that was a benign, but potentially pre-cancerous lesion.

He also lost his son Beau to brain cancer at the age of 46 in 2015. Biden started the “Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot” in 2016 when he was US vice president to try to fight the disease.

-with AAP