Jill Biden to undergo procedure for skin lesion

By Kate Bennett, CNN

First lady Jill Biden will undergo a procedure next week to remove a lesion that was found during a routine skin cancer screening, her press secretary Vanessa Valdivia told CNN on Wednesday.

“During a routine skin cancer screening, a small lesion was found above the First Lady’s right eye,” White House physician Kevin O’Connor said in a memo released by the first lady’s office. “In an abundance of caution, doctors have recommended that it be removed.”

Biden will have the outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery on January 11 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Mohs Surgery is typically an outpatient procedure that cuts away thin layers of skin to look for signs of the most common types of skin cancer as well as other less-common skin cancers. Care is taken to remove cancerous tissue while leaving healthy tissue in place.

The first lady, 71, is the oldest sitting first lady in modern American history, though she exercises several times a week, taking classes at local barre gyms.

The Bidens returned this week from a holiday vacation in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, where President Joe Biden had said he would discuss the possibility of running for a second term with his family. Many Democrats close to Biden say they are convinced he will run again, and there appears to be little dissent within his family.

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CNN’s Betsy Klein, Kate Bennett, Kevin Liptak and Jack Forrest contributed to this report.