Image by Getty / FuturismCancerOn Sunday, The New York Times reported that former president Joe Biden, 82, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.What, exactly, does that mean? A bunch of Americans have apparently been trying to figure that out.Google search queries for the phrase "what is a prostate" drastically spiked following news about the former president's cancer diagnosis, as flagged on Bluesky by The Onion writer June Sternbach.The trend suggests that the sad news about America's 46th president didn't just spark inquiry over prostate cancer and what it means, but that a surprising number of US citizens are unclear on what a prostate even is, which may unfortunately be a glaring indictment of American health education.Because many citizens are clearly looking for some answers, we shall provide them. The prostate, according to the National Institutes of Health, is a "gland about the size of a chestnut" that sits below men's bladders and above their pelvic floors. It's a component of the male reproductive system, and a key function includes providing an essential fluid used by the male body to create sperm.Doctors recommend that men, especially as they age, get regular prostate exams. As men get older, most will experience prostate enlargement, which may cause some irritation to the bladder. Prostate cancer, meanwhile, is the leading cancer for men, according to the American Cancer Society, and is most common in patients over the age of 65.As NPR noted this week, prostate cancer can be effectively treated, and has a five-year relative survival rate of about 97 percent. Those odds go down, however, if the cancer spreads to other parts of the body, as Biden's has. His cancer has progressed to Stage 4 and has metastasized to the bone.The former president "has a very bad version" of prostate cancer, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine urologist Ben Davis told NPR, "probably the worst version you can get."Still, Davies added, advancements in treatment mean that "it's not all doom and gloom, to be honest.""He can easily live ten years with this disease," the urologist continued.Biden's team has said that the former president's cancer "appears to be hormone-sensitive," which may make it more manageable, per the NYT.It's an unfortunate situation for Biden — whose son, Beau Biden, died in 2015 of brain cancer at the age of just 46 — and his family.So, maybe, now that we all know what a prostate is, if you have one: please consider getting it regularly checked out, and all of us should tell our loved ones to consider doing the same.More on the male reproductive system: Microplastics Found in Human PenisesShare This Article #far #too #many #americans #googled