President Joe Biden’s doctors removed a cancerous skin lesion from his chest in mid-February, the White House announced Friday.
The lesion was removed on Feb. 16, as part of his annual, comprehensive health assessment at Walter Reed Medical Center.
A biopsy of the tissue confirmed, as doctors expected, that the lesion was basal cell carcinoma. According to a letter from the president’s personal physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the area around the excised lesion was treated at the time of the biopsy, and no further treatment will be required.
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common form of skin cancer, which is diagnosed about 3.6 million times each year, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
Unlike relatively more urgent skin cancer diagnoses, such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma lesions don’t tend to spread to other parts of the body — though O’Connor noted that they may increase in size if untreated.
In January, First Lady Jill Biden had three skin lesions removed, two of which were immediately confirmed to have also been basal cell carcinoma.
In 2016, while serving as Vice President, Biden led the Cancer Moonshot task force, seeking to greatly improve cancer treatment and prevention. Last year, the White House announced “reignition” of the Moonshot program with a new national goal: to cut the death rate from cancer by 50% over the next 25 years, while seeking to improve life experience for those with cancer.
