Family friend grateful Pres. Carter is cancer

Carter’s unexpected comments Sunday came first at the small church where he frequently teaches Sunday school lessons in his hometown of Plains, Georgia.

Jill Stuckey who attended the service Sunday and is also a Carter family friend said when the former president made his announcement the church erupted in applause.

President Carter had a type of internal melanoma in his liver and in four places in his brain.

“His greatest risk was that he was going to get disease developed in new locations, but seemingly that hasn’t happened”, Shepard said. The drug he was given, pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda), is part of a rapidly growing class of drugs called immunotherapy, which uses the body’s immune system to fight the cancer. “I am perfectly at ease with whatever comes”, said Mr. Carter during a news conference”. “Circumstances may change over time or he may be in a situation where it does not recur for many years or at all”.

Doctors treated Carter’s lesions with stereotactic radiation therapy, delivering a strong beam of radiation directly to the four tiny spots instead of applying radiation to the entire brain, which might be less effective and could cause significant cognitive impairment.

Carter received immunotherapy and other treatments.

“My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones”.

Speaking on behalf of the American Cancer Society, deputy chief medical officer Dr. Len Lichtenfeld spoke with quite optimism about the turnaround, though stressed that it did not necessarily mean Carter’s long-term battle with cancer was over.

Carter was diagnosed with advanced stage melanoma around May 2015.

Mr. Carter says he will continue taking Keytruda every three weeks.

Despite the diagnosis, Carter continued to volunteer, working to build homes for Habitat for Humanity, an organization he’s been involved with since 1984.

“I went to the doctors this week for the second time”.

Carter has said in interviews that he lost about five pounds, but otherwise tolerated the treatments well. “But the final result of how well the treatments are combating or controlling the cancer, we don’t know yet”.