Jimmy Carter gets optimistic update on cancer treatment

Doctors have found Jimmy Carter is responding well to treatment for cancer, according to a statement released by the former USA president’s spokeswoman on Tuesday.

Cancer experts who are not involved in treating Carter said the report was the best news he could possibly have received.

Carter, 91, started treatment in August for melanoma that had spread from his liver to his brain. A scan had found four “very small spots” on his brain, which were determined to be melanoma.

Carter was supposed to go to Nepal last week for Habitat’s annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project – which would have delayed his last of four scheduled treatments with a promising new drug.

They said Carter is responding well to his treatment and further tests will continue. “I have got thousands of friends and I have had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence”, Carter said. Carter also said he has yet to scale back his work at The Carter Center, the human rights organization he founded after leaving the White House.

Earlier in the month, Carter and his wife Rosalyn joined a group with Habitat for Humanity to help building homes in Memphis, Tennessee.