HOENIX - Arizona Senator John S. McCain, who tried to wrest the Republican presidential nomination from George W. Bush earlier this year, underwent tests yesterday to determine treatment for a serious form of skin cancer, his office said.
McCain announced Wednesday that he had been diagnosed with melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer, after two unrelated spots were discovered, on his left temple and left arm, during a routine exam.
His spokeswoman, Nancy Ives, said McCain underwent a battery of tests at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., yesterday to determine the extent of the cancer and how it should be treated.
McCain spoke at the Republican convention two weeks ago in Philadelphia, and he campaigned in California with Bush, hosting him last weekend at his retreat in Arizona.
McCain, who will be 64 on Aug. 29, underwent treatment for melanoma in 1993 and has had regular follow-up tests.
He has spoken of his cancer on a number of occasions to reporters who covered him during the campaign.
At one point, he jokingly said it was a result ''of my misspent youth - I spent too much time in the sun,'' perhaps a reference to the 51/2 years he spent in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.
