A TV presenter was left reeling live on air when a doctor appearing on the programme discovered he had skin cancer.
Fox News anchor Mike Jerrick, 74, was hosting Good Day Philadelphia when dermatologist Dr Joanna Walker in the studio pointed out a spot on his arm that was likely to be cancerous.
Walker works with the Tara Miller Melanoma Center at the University of Pennsylvania and was quick to label the skin abnormality as having ‘all the features’ that would suggest it was skin cancer.
She pointed to the spot on his arm and said: ‘This is a basal cell skin cancer. That has all the features of the most common type of skin cancer.’
Basal cell cancer is the most common type of skin cancer and looks like a raised bump on the skin, which may be shiny and also have little blood vessels across it.
Walker went on to say that the type of skin cancer he was showing was ‘slow growing’ and easy to treat, but that he would have to have it removed from his arm.
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Jerrick wondered if it would need to be burned off, but Walker explained it would require being ‘cut and stitched’.
‘What!’ Jerrick exclaimed. ‘And then stitch me up?’ To which Walker replied: ‘This one is a very slow growing type of skin cancer.
‘It’s not going to spread to anywhere else on your body, but it needs to be removed so it doesn’t keep growing and taking over normal skin.’
Jerrick was clearly shocked by the discovery in the studio, telling the Fox News audience: ‘I did say that we should have had her bring her [micro]scope because I wanted to check out of couple of things on my arms, so that part was planned, but I never really thought it was going to be skin cancer.’
Jerrick told his co-host Alex Holley he would be booking an appointment to follow Walker’s advice, adding: ‘When she blurted it out, I didn’t get alarmed or anything. It was just like, ‘Oh dang, I should have done this a long time ago’.’
He added: ‘I was more shocked that she said she was going to cut it out instead of burn it off- that’s where I got surprised.’
Fox News has reported Jerrick is set to have the spot removed on Friday (June 6).
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