Skin cancer in his brain is forcing Jimmy Carter to slow down, but the 90-year-old former president won’t give up yet on the humanitarian work that sustained him since losing re-election as president 35 years ago.
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Carter stressed that he will closely follow the recommendations of “the best cancer-treaters in the world”, even as he keeps lecturing at Emory University, attending meetings and fundraising for The Carter Center, and enjoying his extended family – four children, 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. “I’ll do what the doctors recommend for me to extend my life as much as possible”.
“One of the main reasons anybody gets cancer is the immune system’s surveillance system stops working”, Evens said. “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence”.
Last Wednesday, Carter announced that he was diagnosed with cancer that had spread to other parts of his body without saying where. However, as the Houston Chronicle notes, former President Carter, age 90, will be the beneficiary of a new, cutting-edge drug that will not cure his cancer, but will make it manageable as a chronic disease. It was under Carter’s watch that Iran’s revolutionaries stormed the American Embassy in Tehran in November 1979, incensed by U.S. support of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was seen by his people as increasingly corrupt and oppressive.
His treatment regimen will include four injections of pembrolizumab, which was approved by the FDA for melanoma patients past year, at three-week intervals.
“We understand that he has to focus on his treatment, and that’s what we want him to do”, the center’s CEO Mary Ann Peters said.
He said prospects for a lasting peace agreement between Israel and Palestinian authorities are “more dismal than any time I remember in the last 50 years”, and the United States “has practically no influence” with either party.
Carter opened by thanking his wife of 69 years, who sat quietly in the front row, never reaching for the tissues placed near her chair.
Carter said he had received sympathy calls from President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush and Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton. “So this is a propitious time I think for us to carry out our long-delayed plans”. Doctors said the small spots were about 2 millimeters in size. Carter shared that many members of his family have lost their lives due to cancer.
Raised on a peanut farm, he was a relative unknown as Georgia governor when he launched his campaign that unseated President Ford in the 1976 election. His “plainspoken” nature helped Democrats retake the White House in 1976.
“The Carter Center is well prepared to continue on without any handicap if Rosalynn and I do back away from a lot of activities that we have been doing”, he said during a news conference Thursday.
After thinking about it for a moment, Carter smiled.
“That may have interfered with the Carter Center“.
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Then again, “It could have been both”, he added with a wink, prompting another round of laughs.
