Jimmy Carter Battles Metastatic Melanoma: New Cancer Drugs And Treatment Give

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.

In a break from tradition, Carter chose to deliver the news about his illness to the media himself. “I can not think of a more fitting tribute to the Carters than to ensure this year’s project is an unprecedented success”. “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence”.

The theory is that by boosting the immune system, the body will ward off the growth of more cancer cells, while the radiation that Carter is also receiving will attack his existing melanoma. However, as the Houston Chronicle notes, former President Carter, age 90, will be the beneficiary of a new, cutting-edge drug that will not cure his cancer, but will make it manageable as a chronic disease.

His son, Jason Carter, will take over as chairman of the board at the Carter Center in November, as previously scheduled.

Although there is limited data on how well Keytruda, which was approved for treatment of advanced melanoma, works for brain metastases, there is some promising evidence. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes”, Carter said while speaking to the media at the Carter Centre, which he co-founded in 1982 to uphold democracy and global health. He also said that the rest of his body will be scanned repeatedly for months to come and that more cancers may show up elsewhere.

On Thursday, Carter said he remains proud of what he accomplished as president, but is more gratified by his humanitarian work since then, which earned him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

To treat Jimmy Carter’s cancer, doctors will use one of the newest advances in cancer therapy – a class of drugs that mobilizes a patient’s own immune system against their cancer.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, have three sons and a daughter. It was, he said with a disarming smile, “the first time they’ve called me in long time”.

Doctors removed a malignant tumor measuring 2.5 cubic centimeters and about one-tenth of Carter’s liver in early August. He has a family history of pancreatic cancer, still considered a death sentence in most cases.

Carter served as president from 1977 to 1981 and became active in humanitarian causes and monitoring elections after leaving office. His “plainspoken” nature helped Democrats retake the White House in 1976 in the wake of President Richard Nixon’s resignation. However, having watched Carter’s press conference, we should be thinking not about trading invective, but learning from the model of Jimmy Carter about how to be a better participant in and contributor to society, community, and family.

Carter’s seeming inability to resolve the Iranian hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were held captive for 444 days by Islamic revolutionaries who seized the U.S. Embassy in 1979, played a major role in his crushing loss to Ronald Reagan the following year.