Former US president Jimmy Carter has cancer spots on his brain

Five years ago, the prognosis for someone with advanced melanoma in the brain and liver would have been very poor, surgical oncologist Jeffrey Gershenwald, medical director of the Melanoma and Skin Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told the New York Times.

Before Jimmy Carter sat in front of the microphones Thursday morning at the Carter Center in Atlanta to discuss his cancer diagnosis, some speculated the former president might use the moment to raise public awareness about the disease.

He said he thought he had “a few weeks left” when he first learned of the cancer in his brain but said he is now hopeful while being accepting of his condition.

Surgeons earlier this month removed a melanoma tumor that had been found on Carter’s liver following a May trip to Guyana. Clearly, President Carter is looking forward, and Americans should look forward – in hope – with him.

The appearance reminded us that Carter, unlike most politicians who have crossed our national stage in the last 30 or 40 years, is at heart a decent man capable of exhibiting incredible grace. He said he began to reflect on his nine decades of life and was “perfectly at ease with whatever comes”. He has remained active in a variety of charitable causes, maintains the Carter Center in Atlanta and has written a series of books. Of course, he knows that these kinds of things may come soon and as such he has dramatically reduced his workload with the Carter Center and has also announced that getting his treatments will be a “top priority”.

Carter, 90, has already had his first infusion of the drug, known as Keytruda.

Carter has a large family, with 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, and he said all will be encouraged to undergo cancer screening.

What’s frustrating is that sometimes doctors never end up pinpointing the mark that led to the cancer’s spread, the experts say. A spokeswoman said he did not feel well and Carter later said he had a bad cold.

But that same afternoon, the MRI showed it was on his brain.

Yet with his father and his three siblings having died of pancreatic cancer, the disease has always been a concern for Carter.

“I’m an acquiescent and cooperating patient, and within the bounds of my judgment, I will do what the doctors recommend to extend my life as much as possible”, he said. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. “Then it is really no different from other cancers that have spread for its site of origin”, Flaherty said.

“This is a propitious time for us to follow through on our long-delayed plans”, he said.

The devout Christian, who is a deacon at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, said he will continue teaching Sunday school “as long as I’m physically able”.

Carter has also emerged in recent years as an outspoken critic of Israel for its oppression and brutality against the Palestinian people.