The cancer has spread to various parts of his body, though he has not said if it’s terminal.
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Carter, 90, announced the diagnosis in a short statement. “A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week”, the former president said in a statement through his foundation, The Carter Center.
Carter, a Democrat, served as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981 after defeating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford. Since leaving the White House, he has remained active carrying out humanitarian efforts and founded The Carter Center in 1982. Sometimes the primary site can’t be determined, so genetic analysis of the tumor might be done to see what mutations are driving it and what drugs might target those mutations.
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Dr. Lodovico Balducci, a cancer specialist based in Tampa, told the Associated Press that “biological age” played a larger part in treatment options than actual age. Much depends on the patient’s “biological” age versus his actual years, he said. It was discovered during a recent liver surgery. At the time, she said, “prognosis is excellent for a full recovery”.
