In discussions with the New York Times, Carter’s aides and advisers said they expect the former president to face his diagnosis with the same determination as he brought to the presidency, as well as his life afterwards. The liver is often a place where cancer spreads and less commonly is the primary source of it. It said further information will be provided when more facts are known, “possibly next week”. He wrote in the memoir that his father, brother and two sisters all died of the disease and said the trend “concerned” the former president’s doctors at Emory.
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Now, doctors want to pinpoint where the cancer started and where it’s spread so that they can help the Republican.
The 90-year-old is getting well wishes from across the globe after announcing that he is battling cancer.
If doctors are able to take a biopsy of the tissue and look at it under a microscope, certain features of the cells can reveal where the cancer came from, Kukar said.
It will tell doctors whether the cancer might be curable; cancer that has spread very widely usually is not. A landmark federal study was just launched to test this approach – treating patients on the basis of their tumor gene mutations rather than the site of origin, such as breast or lung.
Tufts Medical Center resident hematologist Dr Andrew M. Evans told press that Carter has to undergo a number of tests to determine the cause of the formation of a “small mass”.
Drugs can be considered, from traditional chemotherapy to newer medicines that target specific genes.
“Given the president’s age, any treatments, their potential and their impacts, will undoubtedly be discussed carefully with him and his family”, Lichtenfeld said. He explained that there are many possible mechanisms that can cause cancer.
Age by itself does not preclude successful cancer treatment, said Dr. Lodovico Balducci, a specialist on treating cancer in the elderly at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa. “If he tolerated liver surgery, I imagine he has a relatively good tolerance” to other treatments that might be tried.
After losing his bid for a second term against former president Ronald Reagan, he founded The Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982.
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In addition to regularly teaching Sunday school at a Baptist church in Plains, Ga., he continued as a faculty member at Emory University and led the annual weekly Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project for Habitat for Humanity global.
