Biden Did Not Get Prostate Cancer Diagnosis Before Last Week, Spokesman Says

Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had never received a diagnosis of prostate cancer before last week, his spokesman said on Tuesday, pushing back against speculation that there had been some sort of coverup around the illness.

The spokesman, Chris Meagher, also said Mr. Biden’s last-known prostate-specific antigen test, the most common way to screen for prostate cancer, was in 2014. Mr. Biden would have been 71 or 72 years old at the time.

The new details help provide some clarity about Mr. Biden’s health records, but they still do not directly give an answer on why Mr. Biden was not regularly screened for prostate cancer throughout his presidency.

Mr. Meagher did not respond to that question, and Kevin O’Connor, Mr. Biden’s doctor in the White House, did not respond to inquiries. But allies of Mr. Biden, 82, and medical experts point to guidelines that advise against P.S.A. screening for men over the age of 70. The guidelines vary slightly across different medical organizations, but doctors generally agree that men of an advanced age should not automatically be screened for prostate cancer.

But Mr. Biden was not just the average American man, and his diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer has raised the question: Should the oldest president in American history have gone beyond those guidelines? Mr. Biden, until July, was also running for a second term in office, and had he won, he would have been 86 at the end of his second term.

Some men over 70 do choose to have the test despite the guidelines. President Trump, 78, has been regularly screened for prostate cancer, according to his medical records from the last decade. Mr. Trump’s medical report from his physical last month showed his P.S.A. level was normal.