CancerPage

As the Presidential campaign approaches, John McCain is again under fire for his history of melanoma and the surgery (plastic surgery too?) that may have went along with it. It appears that he had had four melanoma lesions, only one of which was serious enough to be a real threat to his life. That one was apparently on this left temple and required surgery for the lesion itself (with 2 centimeter margins) and some of the lymph nodes in his Parotid gland/left neck. This is considered routine for melanoma of the face of intermediate thickness in some centers. Those lymph nodes were negative by report.

On the question of cosmetic surgery, the the senator is harder to figure. The neck and Parotid surgery frequently leave swelling in their wake. This may explain in part the discrepancy between the sides of his face and neck. Could he have had some cosmetic work to make less apparent the surgery for the left temple melanoma? That is possible, as images I have seen between 2006 and now seem to show that the neck has tightened a bit. A simple face/neck lift would have been a good idea around that time seeing this Presidential run coming in the distance.

Best Regards,

John Di Saia MD