Bernie Sanders’ skin cancer was removed on Thursday after a surgery that is said to have lasted for an hour, but it didn’t stop the senator from returning to work in the nation’s capital in the same day before traveling back to Vermont.
Sanders had a small basal cell carcinoma on his cheek, which is a common type of skin cancer, The Associated Press reported.
According to SkinCancer.org, basal cell carcinoma is a slow-growing type of skin cancer, but it’s highly curable.
These lesions are uncontrollable and they “often look like open sores, red patches, pink growths, shiny bumps, or scars” caused by intense exposure to the sun.
Despite this cancer rarely being fatal to those who have it, the Daily Mail noted that adults over age 60 are more common to fall victim to it.
According to SkinCancer.org, there are more than 4 million cases of basal cell carcinoma in the U.S. each year.
Sanders’ surgery comes after the 75-year-old slammed President-elect Donald Trump for selecting Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, CNN noted.
Sanders referred to the decision as “very dangerous,” and took to Twitter Saturday to call Trump “a pathological liar.”
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