First lady Jill Biden had cancerous lesions removed on Wednesday, according to the White House physician.
President Biden accompanied his wife as she underwent a Mohs surgery at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., to remove a skin lesion above her right eye.
The outpatient procedure confirmed “that the small lesion was basal cell carcinoma,” a form of skin cancer, physician Kevin O’Connor said Wednesday afternoon.
While all of the cancerous cells were removed, doctors identified “an additional area of concern” on Jill Biden’s chest, which was also removed and later confirmed to be cancerous.
Another lesion on the 71-year-old first lady’s left eyelid was removed and is poised to undergo “standard microscopic examination.”
O’Connor noted that basal cell carcinoma lesions, the most common type of skin cancer, “do not tend to ‘spread’ or metastasize” but “have the potential to increase in size, resulting in a more significant issue as well as increased challenges for the surgical removal.”
The president’s physician said Jill Biden experienced “some facial swelling and bruising” but was in “good spirits” and “feeling well.”
The president returned to the White House on Wednesday, and O’Connor said the first lady is expected to head back to the executive mansion later in the day.