Carter said that after the cancer in his brain was diagnosed, he initially thought he was nearing the end of his life, but was still at ease.
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“It’s in the hands of God”, Carter said. Raised on a peanut farm, Carter was a relative unknown as Georgia governor when he launched his campaign that unseated President Ford in the 1976 election.
And while Mr. Carter’s age – he is 90 years old – has been a topic of speculation since he first announced that he has cancer last week, experts say it may not be as big a challenge as one might think. But he cautioned against the idea that Carter can be “cured”.
“If he can’t make it”, said Reckford, “we will be there building in his honor”. “The goal is control with a good quality of life”.
Former President Jimmy Carter will undergo radiation treatment for the cancer that has now spread to his brain.
He called his work with the Carter Center “personally more gratifying” than his presidency, though he joked that he wished he might have been able to serve a second term and then engage in humanitarian work after leaving the White House. Because of his remedy schedule, which incorporates 4 periods at three-week intervals, Carter stated he plans to chop again on his work together with his nonprofit, the Carter Middle. As many as half of patients respond well to the immune system drug, “the highest activity we’ve ever seen” for a melanoma treatment, and many have remissions that can last many years, he said.
In an ideal world, Carter has offered a model of how to use this role to advocate for certain ideas and to actually be involved in public policymaking outside of the partisan sphere.
Still, his grandfather’s responses to reporters often expanded into reflections on his life, faith and family.
“I’ve had a wonderful life”, he said in a press conference. “I was just completely at ease”.
He said he hadn’t “felt any weakness or debility”, and that his cancer had not yet spread to his pancreas; his father, two sisters, and brother all died of pancreatic cancer.
Carter’s next few months are in flux. The former president said he’s already been given the drug once, for 30 minutes.
Carter’s grandson Jason Carter said he hopes the former president spends as much time as possible with his wife, Rosalynn – and gets to go fishing.
When the couple are in Plains, Mr Carter frequently teaches a Sunday School class before services at Maranatha Baptist Church. He also said the ex-president need not worry if he has to cancel.
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.
“The options were far fewer even a year ago” for patients such as Carter, said Louise Perkins, chief science officer for the Melanoma Research Alliance, the largest private funder of melanoma research.
Immunotherapy is a relatively new approach to cancer treatment and physicians find it very promising. He said he appreciated all the well-wishes, including calls from current and former presidents.
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Among Carter’s well-wishers is current President Barack Obama, CBS reported.
