Source: ChinaFotoPress / Getty
Former President Jimmy Carter made the announcement that he will step back from his humanitarian work and surround himself with his family as he undergoes three months of treatment for melanoma cancer. This weekend, relatives will gather in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, to celebrate his wife’s 88th birthday.
Carter plans to teach Sunday school at his church, as he often does and on Oct. 1, he will turn 91. The former president was noticeably upbeat Thursday, making jokes and flashing his wide smile during an open and honest 45-minute news conference about the state of his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
He said he was “ready for a new adventure” and felt his life’s work was not done. Carter received targeted radiation therapy Thursday, aimed at four small tumors in his brain.
Earlier in the week, Carter received an injection of a newly approved drug to help his immune system discover and destroy cancer cells that may develop anywhere else in his body. He will have that same treatment three more times at three-week intervals, and there could be other radiation treatments as needed.
Doctors also removed a small tumor from his liver on Aug. 3. He said Thursday that he felt little pain or weakness and had slept well after receiving his first injection of pembrolizumab.
Carter said as much as he’s able, he will continue lecturing at Emory University, raising money for the Carter Center’s $600 million foundation, and meeting with experts on guinea worm and other diseases the center is working to cure.
Doctors originally told Carter they had completely removed cancer from his liver during surgery on Aug. 3, but an MRI exam that same afternoon showed spots on his brain. Carter said he went home that night thinking he had only a few weeks to live, but somehow found himself feeling “surprisingly at ease.”
Carter didn’t discuss his long-term prognosis. He said the path toward his cancer diagnosis began in late May, when he left an election monitoring trip to Guyana early because of a bad cold.
Doctors found a spot on his liver during a follow-up exam, and recommended its removal after a scan. More tests have failed to determine the origin of his melanoma or how it may have spread, but not knowing where it started won’t hinder the treatment, and Carter said the cancer still could show up in other places.
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