According to WTHR, Carter’s body will be scanned to check whether a new cancer cell has developed.
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(I) went for an MRI this past week and they (doctors) didn’t find any cancer at all in the brain.
Carter revealed in August that cancer initially found in his liver had spread to four spots on his brain.
On Sunday, the former president shared the good news with his fellow parishioners at his church in Plains, Ga., that he is cancer free.
“It’s like getting the biggest Christmas gift that you could ever want”, said Jan Williams, another close Carter friend who spends the hour before Carter’s class humorously instructing visitors on the do’s-and-don’ts of being around their famous teacher.
If the former president is indeed cured, it would not be the first time Carter has made an incredible comeback.
Chemotherapy can be hard on patients-along with killing cancer cells, it can also kill healthy cells. Carter said on Thursday he will start radiation treatment for cancer on his brain later in the day.
Additionally, there is more hope the cancer won’t return with immunotherapy.
The new therapies tend to be expensive – Keytruda costs roughly $150,000 per year – but they have shown remarkable results in some patients.
“My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones”. “For today, the news can not be better”, Lichtenfeld said. Keytruda, an engineered immune protein called a monoclonal antibody, disrupts this cloaking effect and lets the immune cells do their job and eat the tumor cell.
“I haven’t been uncomfortable or ill after the treatments were over”.
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Despite the diagnosis, Carter continued to volunteer, working to build homes for Habitat for Humanity, an organization he’s been involved with since 1984. So that part of it has been a relief to me and I think to the doctors. Many of them had no idea the news was coming. Even with potent treatments there’s a chance that cancer cells could survive and grow over time.
