US President Joe Biden gets a cancerous lesion removed: 6 things to know about basal cell carcinoma

US President Joe Biden underwent surgery to remove a cancerous lesion, last month. According to a statement shared by a representative of the White House, the lesion was detected during a routine check-up and was removed immediately.

Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s doctor, told the media that the lesion was removed from Biden’s chest on February 16, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington, DC. Biden left the operating table completely hale and hearty and the area “healed nicely,” since the biopsy was performed. “No other treatment is required,” he told the press.

The lesion found though was cancerous. However, the type of skin cancer that was found -basal cell carcinoma was of the more curable type as it does not metastasise or spread to other parts of the body easily.

Here are some things you need to know about this skin cancer:

• This is one of the most common types of skin cancer.
• It occurs in the basal cells, responsible for generating new skin cells when old skin cells wither away.
• This form of cancer appears as a transparent bump on the skin.
• Medical specialists believe this cancer is caused due to exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun.
• Brown lesions that sometimes bleed may be visible once cancer progresses.
• Other symptoms include a scaly, flesh-colored patch that grows larger despite treatments.
• Some may develop white lesions that resembled unfaded scars.

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