President Joe Biden caught the public off-guard when he said in the present tense that he had skin cancer.
The White House pointed out that Biden has been treated for benign cancer in the past.
He made the comment during a speech about climate change in Somerset, Massachusetts, on Wednesday and was referring to rampant environmental pollution in his home state of Delaware. He suggested that the pollution he dealt with in childhood was to blame for the skin cancer he would have later in life.
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“You’d have to put on your windshield wipers to get, literally, the oil slick off the window,” Biden said. “That’s why I, and so damn many other people I grew up with, have cancer. And why, for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation.”
White House officials indicated that Biden was referring to his past treatment for cancerous lesions.
A 2021 report from the president’s physician said that Biden had, before he took office, “several localized, non-melanoma skin cancers” that were removed with a simple procedure requiring local anesthesia. The report also noted that “there are no areas suspicious for skin cancer at this time. No biopsies were required.”
Biden’s November health report acknowledged that the president spent much of his youth in the sun, which is likely to blame for his brushes with skin cancer.
Cancer has touched Biden’s life in more than one way. His son Beau, a former Delaware attorney general, died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46. Biden was the vice president at the time under former President Barack Obama. Biden later launched the Cancer Moonshot with the goal of accelerating the research and development of cancer treatments.
Biden has also suffered two aneurysms and required surgery for both. The first aneurysm was severe and threatened his life. He was so close to death that a priest was preparing to administer the Catholic sacrament of the anointing of the sick. A few months later, surgeons clipped a second aneurysm before it burst after discovering it during a routine screening. His doctor has said that he fully recovered and that the incident would not limit him in office.
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Skin cancer is most commonly caused by overexposure to the sun, but researchers have uncovered a link between air pollution and skin conditions such as cancers, psoriasis, and increased incidences of eczema. Melanoma is to blame for most of the deaths due to skin cancer, though it only accounts for 1% of skin cancers diagnosed annually.
