However Carter did mention his work with the Carter Center – a non-profit that focuses on a number of issues – as more fulfilling for him than his presidency but does lament that he could not have had both the organization and a second term.
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Cancer expert Dr. George Raptis said Carter likely will benefit from recent advances in melanoma treatment that have created targeted drugs like pembrolizumab.
Radiation – which he was scheduled to begin Thursday – will target the four small tumors on his brain, while immunotherapy drugs will boost his immune system, which fights illness in the body.
JUDY WOODRUFF: President Carter, we will all pulling for you.
Former President Jimmy Carter discusses his cancer diagnosis during a press conference at the Carter Center on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Thinking of President Carter & his courage and honesty facing his own health problems & helping stop devastating diseases around the world”, Tom Friedan, director of the Centers for Disease Control, tweeted Thursday.
In true Jimmy Carter spirit, he added, “I’m ready for anything and looking forward to a new adventure”. The former president said he’s already been given the drug once, for 30 minutes. “I’ll be prepared for anything that comes”, said Carter, the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, during which he also visited India. His father and three siblings all died of pancreatic malignancies. Still, he will cut back on his work with the Carter Center and will give the treatment regimen his “top priority”.
His devoted partner Rosalynn, the former First Lady, looked on, as Carter described her as the “pinnacle” of his life.
“I have had a wonderful life”. Doctors removed about 1/10 of his liver during the surgery, he said.
The announcement came after doctors at Emory University Hospital first discovered the cancer as a small mass on Carter’s liver.
He said he is not feeling despair or anger over his health, and feels good, with only slight pain.
The younger Carter said his grandfather and grandmother called the family together to tell them the news.
“I found out toward the end of May that I had a spot on my liver that was suspect”, he said. “I do have a deep religious faith, which I’m very grateful for”, he said. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. But cancer has been a foreboding diagnosis for other members of his immediate family. He has also told the CEO of Habitat for Humanity that he still hopes to travel to Nepal in November with the group, but that now depends on whether he can postpone the last of his radiation treatments. “First time they’ve called me in a long time”, he laughed.
The devout Christian, who is a deacon at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, said he will continue teaching Sunday school “as long as I’m physically able”.
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Carter is fortunate that his melanoma didn’t happen a few years ago.
