Jimmy Carter Announces He Is Cancer
Keytruda, made by pharmaceutical company Merck, was originally approved by the FDA in September 2014 to treat melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer that can also show up in other organs of the body, as it did in Carter’s case.
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President Jimmy Carter is now cancer free and he says he has a new cancer drug to thank for it.
A cancer drug which is the centerpiece of San Antonio’s START Center’s drug development efforts is given the credit for eliminating all signs of cancer in 91 year old former President Jimmy Carter, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Once he learned that the cancer was in his brain, Carter s he thought he had only weeks to live His treatment involved pembrolizumab, one of several new cancer-fighting drugs that work by strengthening the body’s natural immune response to cancer.
He received radiation targeting the tumors and regular doses of the drug.
After leaving the White House, Mr Carter founded the Carter Center, which focuses on human-rights efforts and political mediation.
What happens to cancer patients depends on a complex choreography among the type and stage of our cancers, our general state of health, and the resources available to and affordable by us for treatment.
“President Carter’s doctors certainly will continue close surveillance as they would for any patient in this situation”, said Dr. Lichtenfeld. The former president announced the good news at a Sunday school, where the people applauded and celebrated. Canter said in August that no cancer had been found on his pancreatic so far.
Other tests performed at the Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, where he is receiving care, have not been identified. “We don’t know what the future holds for him”.
Doctors will continue to scan Carter’s brain and the rest of his body to ensure the disease hasn’t spread, Johnson said.
“I’m feeling better than anybody expected me to, so I’m still maintaining a pretty normal schedule, I’d say”, Carter told NPR last month.
According to WebMD, in the past patients with melanoma that had spread to the brain could expect to live six to 12 months. “I haven’t been uncomfortable or ill after the treatments were over”.