First lady has cancerous lesions removed, White House says
WASHINGTON — Surgeons removed a cancerous lesion above first lady Jill Biden’s right eye and one on her chest, the White House said Wednesday, while a third lesion on her left eyelid was being examined.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the physician to President Joe Biden, said examinations showed that the lesion over Jill Biden’s right eye and one newly discovered on her chest were confirmed to be basal cell carcinoma. The lesion on her left eyelid was “fully excised, with margins, and was sent for standard microscopic examination,” according to O’Connor’s report.
Basal cell carcinoma is a slow-growing cancer that usually is confined to the surface of skin and seldom causes serious complications.
The Bidens spent the day at Walter Reed National
Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, while the first lady had the scheduled outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery to remove and examine the lesions.
O’Connor said the first lady was “experiencing some facial swelling and bruising, but is in good spirits and is feeling well.”
The first lady’s office announced a week ago that doctors had discovered the lesion during a recent routine skin cancer screening. She was to have a “common outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery to remove and definitively examine the tissue,” said O’Connor in a Jan. 4 memo that the first lady’s office released last week.
That surgery involves cutting away thin layers of skin and examining each layer for signs of cancer. Doctors keep removing layers of skin and examining them until there are no signs of cancer.
Doctors recommended removing the lesion from Jill Biden, 71, “in an abundance of caution,” O’Connor wrote in the memo.
The Skin Cancer Foundation said the skin around the eyes is vulnerable to damage from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
The surgery was arranged for the morning after the Bidens returned from Mexico City, where the president held two days of talks with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.