First lady Jill Biden had two cancerous lesions removed Wednesday, the White House physician said in a memo.
The first lady, 71, had gone to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to have a small lesion over her right eye that was discovered during a skin cancer screening exam surgically removed.
“The procedure confirmed that the small lesion was a basal cell carcinoma,” Dr. Kevin O’Connor said in a later statement.
A second lesion, also confirmed to be basal cell carcinoma, was found on the first lady’s left chest during her preoperative consultation, her memo says. Both were removed through an outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery.
While preparing her for the procedure, hospital staff also discovered another lesion on her left eyelid, which was removed and is being examined, O’Connor said.
“Again, all the cancerous tissue was successfully removed,” he added.
O’Connor said that “as anticipated,” Biden “is experiencing some facial swelling and bruising” after the outpatient procedure, “but is in good spirits and feeling good. He will return to the White House later today.”
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer and is easily treatable if detected early. It hits the basal cells in the top layer of the skin.
O’Connor pointed tbasal cell hat Carcinoma lesions “do not tend to ‘spread’ or metastasize, as some more serious skin cancers, such as melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma, are known to do. However, they do have the potential to increase in size, which resulting in a more significant problem as well as greater challenges for surgical removal.”