The Nation - News from March 10, 1988

First Lady Nancy Reagan had a small growth removed from an area above her upper lip Saturday, the Washington Post reported. It was the second time in five years that a dermatological procedure has been performed there because of overexposure to the sun, a White House spokeswoman said. Press Secretary Elaine Crispen, describing the growth as actinic keratosis, said biopsy results showed that the tissue was benign, unlike in 1982, when a growth diagnosed as basal cell epithelioma was found to be malignant. Crispen said the latest growth, sometimes called a sun lesion, was “basically a thickening of skin caused by exposure to the sun.” It was removed by scraping, rather than surgically excised, by Dr. William Narva, a dermatologist and Navy admiral who is the attending physician to Congress. “Since it was just a scraping, no stitches were required,” Crispen said.