CNN’s Kaitlan Collins Fact-Checks Trump: ‘There Is No Stage 9 Cancer’

CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins fact-checked President Donald Trump for falsely claiming that former President Joe Biden has “stage nine” prostate cancer, explaining “there is no stage nine for cancer.”

Less than a week after revealing through a spokesman that he was being evaluated for a prostate issue, news broke that President Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. The news touched off an outpouring of compassion that morphed quickly into conspiratorial territory as Trump and others suggested, without evidence, that the diagnosis was known previously but covered up until now.

On Monday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, the anchor played a clip of Trump suggesting that a “stage nine” diagnosis must have been known “a long time ago,” and corrected him —. Biden’s cancer is a nine on the Gleason scale.

Collins also asked cancer expert Dr. Curtiland Deville if Trump’s assertion about the diagnosis is correct. According to the doctor, it is not:

COLLINS: President Trump reacting to President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis, suggesting that it was not just recently discovered.

This is what he told me, when I asked him about his predecessor, in the Oval Office today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Do you want to respond to President Biden being diagnosed with cancer? Are you going to call your predecessor?

TRUMP: I think it’s very sad, actually. I’m surprised that it wasn’t, you know, the public wasn’t notified a long time ago. Because to get to stage nine, that’s a long time.

I just had my physical. You saw that. You saw the results of that particular test. I think that test is standard to pretty much anybody getting a physical.

I think people should try and find out what happened, because I’ll tell you the Walt — I don’t know if it had anything to do with the hospital. Walter Reed is really good. They’re some of the best doctors I’ve ever seen. I don’t even know if they were involved. But a doctor was involved in each case, maybe it was the same doctor, and somebody is not telling the facts. That’s a big — that’s a big problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, I should note, there is no stage nine for cancer.

There is the Gleason Score, which is a scale used to measure prostate cancers for their aggressiveness, on a scale of six to 10. President Biden’s cancer is at a Gleason score of nine, according to the statement his office put out yesterday. And that means his diagnosis is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer that is now spread to the 82-year-old former President’s bones.

My source tonight is:

The radiation oncologist, Dr. Curtiland Deville.

And the former communications director for the Democratic National Committee, Karen Finney.

And Doctor, I want to ask you what — I was texting Sanjay Gupta, this morning, because my question was, and to the President’s point there, as President, you do get access to the best doctors in the world, and you do undergo pretty rigorous screenings, because of the nature of your job. So my question was, is there a possibility that he had this, and they didn’t see it during those physical exams?

DR. CURTILAND DEVILLE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, JOHNS HOPKINS PROTON THERAPY CENTER, RADIATION ONCOLOGIST: It’s quite possible and likely, I would say.

Prostate cancer may avoid the threshold of detection. And we often hear that men increasing with age, are likely to have prostate cancer within their gland. They may have the indolent, unaggressive prostate cancer that’s unlikely to cause a problem, what we would classify likely as a Gleason six prostate cancer. But what we want to detect is that more aggressive and what we call potentially lethal prostate cancer.

Sometimes, the PSA blood test is not exactly reflective of what’s happening in the prostate and, frankly, throughout the body, if prostate cancer is spreading. And some men may have very low PSA numbers while the cancer is progressing, and ultimately, may only be diagnosed once they have some symptoms or some other issues that are going on.

So it’s possible that within the interval, if the President was, or any patient in that situation, was being screened, annually, having a PSA blood test, that it could have been low, or it could have progressed within the interval between the time they had their last test, and the next one.

COLLINS: But for it to be this bad, do you think he’s likely had this for years? What would you say?

DEVILLE: I would say it’s — we never know for sure, but likely there was some less aggressive cancer that potentially then becomes more aggressive. I usually explain to patients that cancer is looking for a way to kind of mutate. All the cells are concerned about dividing quickly and progressing. So, it’s eventually mutating, and figuring out ways to become more aggressive.

We may see that sometimes in hindsight. We look back at the patient’s PSA blood test and kind of the evolution, was there an inflection point? Was there any change? Something that hints at cancer was beginning to become more aggressive, again, before it reached that threshold where we might still recommend a biopsy.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.