Jill Biden is having Mohs surgery for a skin lesion. What is the procedure like?
First lady Jill Biden is having surgery on Wednesday after doctors found a small lesion above her right eye, the White House said.
The lesion was found during a routine skin cancer examination, and President Biden accompanied her to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where she is having it removed in a routine procedure known as Mohs surgery.
Updated January 11, 2023 at 9:25 AM ET
What is Mohs surgery?
The procedure was developed in the late 1930s by surgeon Frederic Mohs and is used to remove basal and squamous cell carcinomas, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation.
Basal cell carcinomas are the most common type of skin cancer, but they grow slowly, so are typically mild and can be very treatable if detected early. Squamous cell carcinomas are the second-most common types of skin cancer and have rapid growth, but are curable when treated early, the foundation said.
First, surgeons will typically mark the site of a patient's biopsy and anesthetize the area to numb it. Patients are kept awake during the procedure.
The doctor then removes a visible layer of skin tissue from the area and takes it to the lab to be analyzed. There, they cut the tissue into sections, dye it and map out the area it was taken from. A technician freezes the tissue, further slices it thinly into horizontal sections and places it under a microscope for examination.
If cancer cells are present, another layer is removed from the surgical site and the process repeats until the cancer cells are gone.
Biden has been a vocal advocate for fighting cancer
Elevating the fight to end cancer has been of Jill Biden's signature priorities as first lady. The White House has said she has been involved since four of her friends were diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993. In 2015, her son Beau Biden died from brain cancer.
A year later, when he was vice president, Joe Biden started the "Cancer Moonshot," a push to dramatic reduce the number of deaths from cancer. He and Jill Biden relaunched it last year.
The first lady frequently visits cancer research and treatment centers on her travels around the country to promote their work and encourage people to get screened. She also promotes the issue when she meets with spouses of global political leaders. In October, she launched a series of roundtables at a White House event with performer Mary J. Blige, and in November, she attended a World Series game in Philadelphia to help promote Major League Baseball's cancer initiative. [Copyright 2023 NPR]
