US President Joe Biden had a skin lesion removed from his chest in February that was a basal cell car-cinoma — a common form of skin cancer — and no further treatment is needed, White House physician Kevin O’Connor said on Friday.
All cancerous tissue was successfully removed, the White House physician said in a letter, adding that Biden will continue dermatologic surveillance as part of his ongoing healthcare but the site had healed.
Last month, doctors declared Biden, 80, healthy and “fit for duty” after a physical examination. They said at the time that a small lesion had been removed from his chest and sent for a biopsy.
O’Connor said in the letter that basal cell carci-noma lesions do not tend to spread or metastasise.
Biden’s health is under close scrutiny as he pre-pares for an expected run for a second presidential term in 2024. His wife Jill Biden has said he plans to run, although a formal declaration of the president’s intentions has yet to be made.
Whether Biden — already the oldest American president ever — should be the party’s candidate is a source of debate among Democrats.
Biden’s three-hour session with doctors in Feb-ruary at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in the Washington suburb of Bethesda, Maryland, was his second extensive exam since taking office in January 2021.—APP
