Former President Jimmy Carter Shares About His Cancer

Former United States President Jimmy Carter revealed Thursday his cancer has now been spread to brain too that was first discovered as a tumor on his liver.

“I’ve had a wonderful life, thousands of friends and I’ve had an exciting and adventurous existence, so I was surprisingly at ease”, Carter said.

He underwent surgery on August 3 to remove a tumor found on his liver, and had once thought that the cancer was confined to his liver. As Carter spoke about “four small spots of melanoma on my brain”, he was forthright, never morose, at times even finding bits of humor as he tried to explain his condition.

Mr. Carter said Thursday that he hasn’t felt any weakness, and that any pain associated with his cancer or treatment has been very slight thus far.

“I’m ready for anything and looking forward to a new adventure”, said Carter, appearing upbeat and making jokes as he openly talked about his cancer during a news conference.

“I’m going to cut back fairly dramatically on my obligations”, Carter said.

Since announcing his disease last week, Carter has taken calls from both President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Protecting healthy tissue during the radiation is key to giving patients quality of life after treatment says Jibbari. “I think it’s about the best sleep I’ve had in many years”, he said.

In 1982, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, founded the Carter Center, which pressed for peaceful solutions to world conflicts, promoted human rights and helped work to eradicate disease in poor nations. He said it’s still not clear exactly where the cancer originated.

Doctors will continue to scan other parts of Carter’s body to see if the cancer is spreading.

Ahead of a news conference for Jimmy Carter to publicly discuss his recent cancer diagnosis for the first time, his family has gathered and a single chair is placed behind a cloth-covered table, presumably for the former president to give his remarks.

Melanoma is the most risky form of skin cancer, but it’s curable if caught early enough, said Dr. David Agus, an oncologist and professor of medicine at the University of Southern California. The center, based in Atlanta, launched a new phase of Carter’s public life that would earn him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. In the meantime, Jason Carter said he expects his grandfather to spend time with his wife and do a lot of fishing.

Carter, 90, is receiving infusions of the drug Keytruda, which was fast-tracked and approved by the Food and Drug Administration a year ago. Reporter: That usually begins as a skin cancer.

The 39th president said he had been monitoring elections in Guyana in May when he began to feel unwell.

His planned treatment schedule may prevent him from participating in that and other Carter Center functions, but he remains optimistic. “We’d have rescued them and I would have been re-elected”.