Washington (AFP) - Surgery on Wednesday to remove a lesion from near the right eye of the US first lady, Jill Biden, was "proceeding well," the White House said.
Jill Biden, accompanied by President Joe Biden, flew by the presidential helicopter to Walter Reed National Medical Center in the suburbs of Washington early in the morning.
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 first lady's procedure is proceeding well," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters more than six hours after the Bidens entered the hospital.The White House doctor "will provide an update," she said.
Asked what the president was doing during the lengthy hospital visit, Jean-Pierre said, "today is about his wife.That is the focus for the president right now."
"This about the president supporting his wife of 45 years," she said.
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."
