After months of delay, Republican John McCain’s medical records were released today in an effort to calm down public concern about his health and ability to handle the high-stress job as president in 2009, the Associated Press reports.

The AP was among a small number of news agencies allowed to examine the much-awaited documents. In fact, the senator’s campaign has been under fire since its aides first announced their release last year and kept on postponing the term until today.

According to the resume of the 1,173 pages of medical documents spanning 2000 to 2008, McCain, who will turn 72 in August, appears generally in good condition. The papers, released in a conference room at the CopperWynd Resort and Club in Fountain Hills, Arizona, near the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, show the he is still at risk of developing new skin cancers, but dermatologists at Mayo Clinic keep him under observation by checking him thoroughly every few months.

The Arizona senator was diagnosed with invasive melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer, on his left temple in 2000. He has a scar and swelling on his left cheek as a result of the operation to remove the cancer that year. In his life, McCain has had four melanomas.

The files also revealed that the senator has degenerative arthritis from war injuries, his blood pressure and weight are healthy, and his cholesterol is in good limits, this meaning a much younger heart than his age would indicate.

“I think physiologically he is considerably younger than his chronologic age based on his cardiovascular fitness. I got a call from the cardiologist who said that he had not seen anyone that age exercise for that long in a long time,” Mayo Internist Dr. John Eckstein said in an interview Thursday.

McCain’s Democratic opponents, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, 60, and Illinois Se. Barack Obama, 46, have not released their medical records.

Candidates' health seems to be an important factor in voters’ decision-making. In fact, according to a recent ABC News Washington Post poll, 66 percent of voters surveyed were “entirely comfortable” electing an African American as president, 62 percent felt the same way about electing a woman president, but just 31 percent felt as comfortable with someone as old as McCain as president.