Jimmy Carter’s stunning, moving press conference announcing the beginning of his battle with melanoma on the brain and his scheduled start of radiation therapy on the same day warrants a comment. He revealed that four melanoma spots have been found in his brain after undergoing a procedure to remove a tumour from his liver.
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The 90-year-old had a significant book tour planned this year to promote his latest memoir, “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety”, but decided to rearrange his schedule to fit in the treatment.
“Most melanomas occur on the skin, about 95 percent of them”, and Carter’s cancer probably originated there even though no skin tumor may be apparent now, said Dr. Anna Pavlick, co-director of the melanoma program at NYU’s Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center. He also said that he has been receiving calls from a host of powerful people, including U.S. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, all wishing him good health. He was also incredibly intelligent, discussing his diagnosis and treatment as well as issues of concern to the Carter Center with eloquence and knowledge that few people many decades younger than the former president ever display. They have been considering dialing-back their efforts for the last ten years, but have retained their active involvement thus far.
“Within the bounds of my physical and mental capability I’ll continue to do it”, Carter said. Doctors said the small spots were about 2 millimeters in size. He has four treatments scheduled at three-week intervals. The Food and Drug Administration approved the drug in September 2014 to treat melanoma that can not be removed by surgery, or a cancer that has metastasized. His mother died after having breast cancer. “There’s this old gospel song we were just talking about that says ‘I’m going to stay on the battlefield, ‘ and that’s always the way that he’s approached his life”.
“We’re not looking for a cure in patients who have a disease like melanoma that has spread”, said one of Carter’s physicians, Dr. Walter Curran Jr., executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Typically with Stage IV melanoma there are “not very good outcomes”, Ahluwalia said. “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence”. Carter said he went home that night thinking he had only a few weeks to live, but found himself feeling “surprisingly at ease”.
Carter served in submarines in the Navy and spent years as a peanut farmer before running for office, becoming a state senator and Georgia governor. On Thursday, he said he remains proud of what he accomplished as president, but more gratified by the humanitarian work he’s done since, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
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The key immune system cells needed to attack the tumor can get into the brain, so the treatment gives Carter a fighting chance, he said.
