EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that he beat skin cancer.
“PSA: Wear sunscreen and get your skin checked,” he wrote on X. “I’m grateful to the incredible medical team at Walter Reed Medical Center who recently fully removed basal cell carcinoma (BCC) from my face. I’m relieved to be cancer-free, and I want to share my experience to help raise awareness for you and the people you care about.”
Zeldin explained that the cancer “started as a small, pearl-colored, dome-shaped lesion on my nose,” but biopsy results indicated it was BBC. “Fortunately, BCC is a very common and typically slow-growing form of skin cancer. My dermatologist removed it using Mohs surgery, a precise technique that ensures all cancerous tissue is eliminated.”
He added that a plastic surgeon reconstructed part of his nose using “cartilage from behind my ear and a local skin flap to restore the area.”
“Like many people, there were plenty of moments in my life when I spent time in the sun without sunscreen,” he said, noting that going without sunscreen was a “mistake.”
“Consistently using SPF 30 or higher and getting regular skin checks can go a long way in preventing this,” Zeldin wrote on X.
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, there are an estimated 3.6 million BBC cases each year. The cancer comes from “abnormal, uncontrolled growth of basal cells found in the epidermis, the outermost layer of skin,” the Foundation explains. While it rarely spreads past the “original tumor site,” it can “grow and become disfiguring and dangerous.”
