With His Prostate Cancer Battle, Joe Biden Can Do As Jimmy Carter Did

Former President Jimmy Carter died on December 29, 2024. Keep the date of his passing top of mind. Though sad on its face, it signaled progress. Please read on.

Looking back to 2015, Carter was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to his liver and brain. A brutal prognosis to say the least, but for an immunotherapy drug called pembrolizumab. Upon taking the latter, doctors were able to pronounce the 39^th president cancer free after three months of treatment.

What’s crucial about Carter and his role as a “venture buyer” of a drug most hadn’t heard of, was how fortunate his timing was. As Leonard Licthenfeld, then deputy chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, told ABC News at the time, “five years ago we would not have had much to offer the president.” Stop and think about that.

If Jimmy Carter had received the same diagnosis in 2010 as 2015, he might not have seen 2011. But upon being diagnosed in 2015, Carter missed 2025 by a couple of days. It’s a reminder that wealth is knowledge. The resources that elongated Carter’s life in 2015 existed in 2010, but not the knowledge.

Which brings us to former President Joe Biden. Most already know that he has an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer. The good news is that the New York Times reports that as things stand now, there are roughly “10 new treatments” for prostate cancer, and these treatments “have markedly changed the picture.” And the changed picture is that as with so many diseases that used to take us too early, there’s a growing number of ways for individuals to beat them.

Hopefully Biden avails himself of known treatments, and perhaps some unknowns. As an individual of means but also as a former president, Biden will likely have access to some of the latest and most cutting edge of treatments. Good. Better yet, let’s hope Biden has access to advances perhaps presently out of the typical person’s reach not just financially, but also because unlike Carter and Biden, most of us don’t have “former President” on the proverbial resume.

The simple truth about Biden is that in waging his upcoming battle, the 46^th president can bring publicity to the kind of pharmaceutical and medical advances that, exactly because they’re both effective and obscure, require more investment in their development. To which some might respond that it wouldn’t be fair if Biden, for being Biden, might attain access to hard-to-get and wildly expensive treatments not available to the typical prostate cancer patient. The thinking is backwards.

As with Carter and other people of not insubstantial wealth, we need venture buyers. All advances start out as rare, frequently pricey, only for the very few in possession of connections, means or both to test what most of us can’t. What’s important is that the successful advances signal to pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and scientists what we need more of, and in large amounts.

Let’s never forget that medical advances, like luxuries in general, are historical in nature. As in what initially reaches the very few eventually reaches us all when markets are allowed to work. Biden, once again for being Biden, will not unrealistically attain access to drugs and treatment that will elongate his own life. Let’s hope. If so, think of the knowledge he’ll help leave behind a la Carter, and consequently, think of how meaningful this will be to his legacy.