Washington (AFP) - The US first lady, Jill Biden, flew from the White House on Wednesday to a military hospital for a minor surgical procedure to remove a skin lesion.
Accompanied by President Joe Biden, she flew on the Marine One helicopter to Walter Reed National Medical Center in the suburbs of Washington.
The White House confirmed that she had a "scheduled outpatient procedure, commonly known as Mohs surgery."
The procedure is done with local anesthetic and is considered highly effective, if done early enough, at eradicating formations of skin cancer.
The White House doctor Kevin O'Connor previously made public that "during a routine skin cancer screening, a small lesion was found above the first lady’s right eye."
"In an abundance of caution, doctors have recommended that it be removed," he wrote.
Jill Biden, 71, is the oldest first lady in US history, while her 80-year-old husband is also the oldest president in history.
Cancer is a personal cause for Joe Biden, whose son Beau died in 2015 from brain cancer.He has made reducing the death rate from the disease a "presidential priority."
