Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. underwent surgery recently to remove skin cancer lesions and was seen with a large scar on his forehead.
Mr. Biden’s skin cancer procedure, which his spokeswoman Kelly Scully said on Thursday was a Mohs surgery, comes three months after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
The disclosure from Mr. Biden’s office was made after the television show “Inside Edition” published footage of Mr. Biden leaving a Delaware church service with a scar that is several inches long above his right eye.
Ms. Scully did not disclose when Mr. Biden had the skin cancer procedure. In 2023, when he was president, he had a cancerous lesion removed from his chest during a physical exam at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
In May, Mr. Biden, 82, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. Patients with a similar Stage 4 diagnosis typically live five to 10 years. That’s a much better prognosis than if he had been diagnosed just a few years ago. Treatments can include hormone therapy, chemotherapy, radiation or other drugs.
Later that month, he told reporters he was doing well after beginning treatments. “The prognosis is good,” he said then. “We’re working on everything. All the folks are optimistic,” he added, referring to his medical team.
The Mohs procedure that Mr. Biden recently underwent is a painstaking and time-consuming process to remove basal cell or squamous cell cancers, common skin cancers that can arise in areas like the face that are exposed to sun.
It allows surgeons to remove the cancerous roots, which left unchecked can spread into the body into blood vessels, nerves and cartilage.
The surgery involves is shaving away the cancer, layer by layer. A surgeon numbs the area then removes a thin layer of skin, examining it under a microscope. If cancer cells are present, the surgeon removes another layer and examines it. The procedure continues until no cancer cells are seen.
It is named for Frederic E. Mohs, a surgeon at the University of Wisconsin who developed the procedure in the 1930s. But it was not widely used until the 1960s, when one of his students, Dr. Perry Robins, a surgeon and professor of dermatology at New York University, began promoting it.
Mr. Biden ended his attempt to win re-election last July after concerns about his age overwhelmed his campaign following his abysmal performance during the first general election debate with Donald J. Trump.
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Gina Kolata reports on diseases and treatments, how treatments are discovered and tested, and how they affect people.
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