She is now considered clear of danger, the White House physician said.

Jill Biden, accompanied by President Joe Biden, flew on the presidential helicopter to Walter Reed National Medical Center in the suburbs of Washington for the outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery. White House doctor Kevin O'Connor said in a memorandum that Jill Biden was experiencing post-op "facial swelling and bruising, but is in good spirits and is feeling well".

"She returned to the White House later Wednesday and was "doing well and in good spirits," her spokesperson Vanessa Valdivia said in a statement. Doctors initially scheduled the minor surgery to remove a lesion near her right eye and determine whether it was cancerous. "The procedure confirmed that the small lesion was basal cell carcinoma. All cancerous tissue was successfully removed and the margins were clear of any residual skin cancer cells," O'Connor wrote.

"We will monitor the area closely as it heals, but do not anticipate any more procedures will be needed," he added. Doctors found another lesion on the left side of Jill Biden's chest, which also turned out to be cancerous and was removed using the same procedure, he wrote. They also found another "small lesion" on her left eyelid, which was "fully excised, with margins, and was sent for standard microscopic examination."

Basal cell carcinoma lesions, according to O'Connor, "do not tend to spread or metastasize as some more serious skin cancers." The Mohs procedure is performed under local anaesthesia and is thought to be highly effective at eradicating skin cancer formations if performed early enough.

"The first lady's procedure is proceeding well," White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre told reporters more than six hours after the Bidens entered the hospital. 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 is about the president supporting his wife of 45 years," she said. Jill Biden, 71, is the oldest first lady in US history, while her 80-year-old husband is the oldest American president.

She is thought to have clout inside the White House and would be a key player in a reelection bid, which Biden has indicated he will pursue but has yet to announce.

Cancer is a personal cause for Joe Biden, whose son Beau died from brain cancer in 2015. He has made reducing the death rate from the disease a "presidential priority."

© Agence France-Presse (2023)