Laura Bush Treated For Skin Cancer

(CBS/AP)  First lady Laura Bush had a skin cancer tumor removed from her right shin in early November but decided it was a private matter and did not reveal it publicly.

The White House acknowledged the procedure Monday night after a reporter attending the White House Hannukah party asked Mrs. Bush about a bandage on her shin, CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

The cancer was a squamous cell carcinoma, the second most common form of skin cancer, said Susan Whitson, her press secretary.

A squamous cell carcinoma is a tumor that affects the middle layer of the skin. It is more aggressive than basal cell cancer, the most common form of skin cancer. Squamous cell cancer is more likely than basal cell cancer to spread to other locations, so patients need to have lymph nodes in the region near the tumor routinely examined, according to the National Cancer Institute's Web site.

CBS News' The Early Show medical contributor Dr. Emily Senay described a squamous cell carcinoma as "a firm, red bump, a scaly patch that bleeds" and "develops a slight crust over it."

"Even a bump or sort of a area on the lip can signify squamous cell carcinoma," Senay said.

More than 1 million cases of basal and squamous cell skin cancers are diagnosed annually in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society, which says that most but not all of these forms of skin cancer are highly curable.

Explaining why the procedure was not disclosed until now, Whitson said, "This medical procedure was a private matter for Mrs. Bush, but when asked by the media today, we answered the question."

The first lady was noted wearing a bandage on her right leg before the election. At the time Whitson said Mrs. Bush had a sore on her shin.

In late October, Mrs. Bush had a biopsy because the sore was not healing, Whitson said, and it was determined to be a squamous cell carcinoma.

"It's important to distinguish it from melanoma, which is the type of skin cancer more serious," Senay said. Only 2 to 5 percent of people experience problems with squamous cell carcinoma when it spreads.

Together, basal and squamous cell carcinoma are responsible for less than 0.1 percent of cancer deaths, while the American Cancer Society estimates almost 8,000 Americans will die from melanoma this year.

Whitson said Mrs. Bush's tumor was removed under a local anesthetic. She called it "a little surgical procedure. It's no big deal. She detected it early. She caught it early." No further treatment was needed.

Whitson said the patch was about the size of a nickel and became a matter of concern just before Election Day, Nov. 7.

"It's healing fine and it has not interrupted her schedule at all," Whitson said. In the same month she had the operation, Mrs. Bush accompanied her husband on a trip to Singapore and Vietnam.

In 2001, President George W. Bush had four lesions removed from his face, including two caused by a common skin ailment that can lead to cancer if left untreated. None of the four were cancerous, the White House said.

People with fair skin and prolonged sun exposure are more likely to develop squamous cell carcinoma, and it is more common in the southern latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Mrs. Bush is from Texas.

Monday's revelation was the second case this year of a belated White House announcement. In February, the White House waited almost a day before disclosing that Vice President Dick Cheney had shot a fellow hunter during a quail-hunting trip.

[jeffk1623]

jonw1115

I agree we are stating a lot of the same. My point is simply Europe and Asia needs Middle East Oil more than we do. We need to bridge the gap in relations that Dubya's ego has created, so all of our allies and not just the Dubya puppets will pitch in. That way we can research additional ways of extracting ourselves from Dubya's nightmare.

I apologize for the NEOCON reference. To often the NEOCON crowd out here attacks first before researching any facts. As gslinger3 is notorious for this I placed you in his camp when you posted your Happy News post.

[frankly6]

I volunteered in a Katrina hurricane shelter imediately after the disaster hit New Orleans. People had been on rooftops for days without food, water or any help from the federal government. Many had to swim out many were dying. We were feeding these same people as they came in on buses, stil mudy, shellshocked and hungry having just escaped with their lives moments before.

Laura Bush decided to make a surprise visit just as we began feeding them lunch. She had the whole thing shut down and all these people had to wait for hours as they secured the building for her photo oportunity. When the building was finaly secure enough, she waltzed in, steped up to the food, and had one of her handlers pick a few people from the hungry crowd to be served. When all the cameras were in place, she put food on a handful of plates amid the flashes. She was there just long enough to get some good photos to put a better face on another Bush debacle.

The people who were there to offer real help just stood there in disgust. In the face of devastating incompetence and failure, all the Bush administration was really interested in doing was getting good photo-ops.

[jonw1115]

RandalDS,

I seey your point, I don't think we are very far off from one another. I would say I am a moderate with views to the right, but I am not far right by any means. I can see validity to many peoples views, but I get so sick of the bashing and no one being reasonable enough to say let's drop the rhetoric and try and get out of this as a whole. I know it is easy in theory, but I hope that our politicians can see it is the best answer for our country!

[randalds]

Actually it sounds to me like the both of you are very close to agreeing on the same thing, just using different words. That's how it should be. We should work toward agreeing on how to fix this problem. You both diagree with stay the course and you both want a way out of Iraq. I think that's great.

[jonw1115]

I could care less about world opinion. Factual information is all that concerns me. Fact is that we are still in Iraq and have not reached an exit strategy. I would hardly call myself a NEOCON as you so eloquently put it.

[jeffk1623]

jonw1115

I did not state any where that all the problems would be rectified. I simply stated that getting the right wing hate mongers out of power is a positive step. But in typical NEOCON fashion my words are being twisted.

I agree with you that this mess is way beyond a simple fix. But staying the course would have been a continuation of a failed and doomed policy. At least with change of the leadership we have the oppurtunity start heading in the correct direction.

BTW...pay attention to world opinion...as I stated the world is looking at America differently. They are responding positively to the direction we have chosen.

[randalds]

But he won't jonw1115, which is why the people are turning on him now. He was re-elected in 2004 because the republican party fooled enough people into seeing strength, when what he really has is not that, but pure pigheaded stubbornness. People used to say well at least he's strong and you know where he stands, but now they're seeing the dark side of that, the inability to admit a mistake and to try to fix it. His ego simply won't allow him to admit he's wrong and people are dying because of that.

[jonw1115]

luvNY,

I think there has to be some middle ground. The "stay the course" attitude needs to be ousted along with the "run like he*ll" attitude. It would be nice if W took some advice and implemented a reasonable systematic withdrawl from Iraq.

[randalds]

I'll go along with that. The main reason things went so good in the 90's wasn't because there was a democrat in the White House as much as it was that he worked hard in a bipartisan effort with the republican congress to make things work.

Bush did away with any bipartisan effort and that's how we ended up in the mess we're in. It's going to take good people on both sides of the aisle to fix this one.

[luvny-2009]

No one group thinks they can fix this mess. I think the Dems and Reps alike know this and I have already seen them working together so that's a good sign. There are a handful of morons out there that thought they could run OUR country and we found out the hard way that they were nothing more than screwup good ol'boys and girls. Thank God there are more that want our Country back to where is was than ones wanting to "Stay The Course"