Former president Jimmy Carter recently announced he’s cancer free, and it was largely thanks to a new immunotherapy drug.
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Carter made the announcement during a Sunday School class he teaches in Plains, Georgia. “The first time I went for an MRI of my brain, the four places were still there but they were responding to the treatment”. “When I went [for an MRI] this week they didn’t find any cancer at all. So I have good news”. “So a lot of people prayed for me, and I appreciate that”.
Carter, 91, started treatment in August for melanoma that had spread from his liver to his brain. Doctors removed the liver tumor and began treatment for the other spots with a new immunotherapy drug. However, Carter said in a statement that he will continue to take Keytruda, an immunotherapy drug that helps his body recognize and fight any stray cancer cells. “Immune therapy, in at least a subset of patients, has truly long-lasting responses”.
But the former peanut farmer built one of the most successful post-White House legacies, winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 and remaining active into his ’90s in causes such as fighting disease in Africa and building homes for the poor.
In this November 1, 2015 photo, former President Jimmy Carter is interviewed at a Habitat for Humanity project site in Memphis, Tenn. “He said he got a scan this week and the cancer was gone”, Jill Stuckey said via phone from Maranatha, in an article by AJC.com.
In that sense, he said, Carter’s age actually might have worked in his favor.
“Some of these patients, for example, who have melanoma and are treated with Keytruda, they’re cured”, he said. The job of the immune system is to identify “foreign” substances in the body and attack them.
“Carter has said he experienced no side effects during treatment, a positive sign for his doctors, said Dr. Keith Flaherty, a melanoma specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Termeer Center for Targeted Therapies who is not involved in Carter’s treatment”.
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What type of cancer was Carter fighting? Ga., according to the Associated Press.
