United States (US) President Joe Biden’s doctor said Friday that a skin lesion that was removed from the president’s chest last month was a common form of skin cancer.
White House physician Kevin O’Connor, who has served as Biden’s longtime doctor, said “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” during the president’s routine physical Feb. 16.
O’Conner said in a letter released Friday that a biopsy confirmed the removed lesion was a basal cell carcinoma, a common form of skin cancer that does not tend to spread quickly.
The slow-growing cancer is often easily treated if detected early.
The doctor said the site of the removal has “healed nicely” and that the president does not need any further treatment.
O’Conner said that Biden previously had “several localized non-melanoma skin cancers” removed from his body before he became president and noted that the president spent a lot of time in the sun when he was younger.
After last month’s physical, doctors described Biden, who is 80, as “healthy” and “fit” to carry out his White House responsibilities.
Biden’s wife, Jill, had two basal cell lesions removed from her body in January.
Their son Beau, 46, died in 2015 of brain cancer. – gb