He says: “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes”. However, he plans to cut back on his work with the Carter Center and will focus on treatment.
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At a news conference, he said that he will be undergoing radiation treatments and injections to fight the cancer.
At first, I felt that it was confined to my liver, and that they had – the operation had completely removed it, so I – quite relieved. After that procedure, a scan of Carter’s head and neck that same day revealed four “very small spots” on his brain measuring about 2 millimeters, he said.
“Now I feel it’s in the hands of God, whom I worship, and I’ll be prepared for anything that comes”, he said.
He didn’t give any prognosis, but spoke about receiving treatments for at least several months and left open the possibility of traveling to Nepal in November. He said other family members may have to represent him there.
The liver tumor was removed during surgery at Emory University, where doctors also will use targeted radiation on Carter’s brain tumors and injections of a medication the Food and Drug Administration designated as “breakthrough therapy” and fast-tracked for approval less than a year ago.
When Jimmy Carter announced that his cancer had spread to his brain, he made it clear that he would scale back on his work. The cancer spots on his brain are about 2 millimeters in size. His mother had breast cancer, which later spread to her pancreas. It was also found in his liver.
Yet with his father and his three siblings having died of pancreatic cancer, the disease has always been a concern for Carter.
He said he has melanoma, which is normally a skin cancer but in some cases is found inside the body, and that his doctors don’t know where the cancer originated. He founded Carter Center in 1982 and became a humanitarian.
“He is a very reasonable candidate to receive appropriate treatment, but to ignore his age entirely would be a bad idea”, said Dr. Michael Haas, the head of radiation oncology at McGlinn Cancer Institute, which is part of the Reading Health System.
The cancer’s spread was discovered during surgery to remove a tenth of his liver on August. 3, Carter said.
“Every patient is going to be different”, he said.
The Democrat from Plains, Georgia, whose full name is James Earl Carter Jr., is the second-oldest living president after George H.W. Bush, 91.
Dangwani said his heart goes out to the soon to be 91-year-old former president.
The 90-year-old said physicians were first alerted in May when he was fighting a cold and cut short an election-monitoring trip to Guyana.
And that, whatever else may be said, Jimmy Carter has done.
Elected in 1976, the 39th U.S. president may be better known for his accomplishments after his single term, which was beset by domestic woes including high inflation and turmoil in the Middle East. In the midst of a hostage crisis in Iran, he was defeated for re-election in 1980 by Republican Ronald Reagan.
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He said Thursday he still regretted not being able to rescue the hostages.
