According to the White House, President Joe Biden is recovering well after having a skin lesion removed from his chest.
“all malignant tissue was effectively eliminated,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor wrote to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday. After a biopsy, the benign growth was identified as basal cell carcinoma.
Electrodesiccation and curettage of the skin near the biopsy site were mentioned as prophylactic procedures by O’Connor. When additional therapy was deemed unnecessary, the doctor had to stop.
Basal cell carcinoma lesions do not tend to “spread” or “metastasize,” but they do “have the potential to expand in size, resulting in more significant problems as well as mounting hurdles for surgical removal,” the doctor warned.
The biopsy site is healing well, and the President will continue to see a dermatologist monthly, he added.
O’Connor examined President Biden for the second time during his tenure and concluded that at age 80, Biden is “healthy, robust, and fit to properly execute the tasks of the presidency.” Biden is generally expected to run for reelection in 2020.
Jill Biden, the president’s wife, also had a skin lesion removed in 2018.