United States President Joe Biden, age 80, underwent surgery in February to remove a “small” skin lesion in the chest area, which turned out to be cancerous, his doctor said Friday.
It is a successfully removed basal cell carcinoma that “has no tendency to grow or metastasize,” the president’s physician Kevin O’Connor said in a White House bulletin, adding that Biden “does not need further treatments”.
“The biopsy site has healed very well,” and the president will remain under “dermatological supervision,” O’Connor said in the bulletin released Friday.
Basal cell carcinoma differs from other “more serious” forms of skin cancer, such as melanoma or squamous cell carcinoma.
The lesion was excised during a check doctor the president underwent on Feb. 16, after which Biden was declared “healthy, vital and fit to perform his duties,” according to an assessment by O’Connor after the medical exam.
At the time, the doctor explained that Biden had been exposed to “a lot of time in the sun” in his youth and localized non-melanoma skin cancers had been removed.
The president is expected to announce his candidacy for re-election in the 2024 presidential election soon.
Source: DN
