McCain has spot removed from his face for biopsy

By Jeff Mason

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who has suffered from skin cancer in the past, said on Monday his doctor has removed a spot from his face during a routine checkup in Phoenix earlier in the day.

McCain said the spot on the right side of his face, which an aide described as being like a mole, would be biopsied to ensure it was not cancerous.

"At this point it was just a precautionary removal," an aide told reporters on McCain's campaign plane.

The Arizona senator discussed the spot while speaking to journalists at an oil field in Bakersfield, California, where he was pushing his energy agenda.

"I, as I do every three months, visited my dermatologist this morning. She said that I was doing fine. (She) took a small little nick from my cheek as she does regularly and that will be ... biopsied just to make sure that everything is fine," he said.

McCain has had four malignant melanomas -- a potentially lethal type of skin cancer -- surgically removed since 1993. Three of them were limited to the top layers of the skin and were not invasive.

The fourth melanoma, removed from his left temple in 2000, was invasive. During that surgery, doctors also took out lymph nodes to see if the cancer had spread. The lymph nodes showed no evidence of cancer.

Doctors have removed other less serious skin cancers, including basal cell and squamous cell cancers, from McCain's skin without complication.