Jimmy Carter tells church his cancer is gone

The announcement was made in front of church goers at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Carter’s hometown in Plains, Georgia.

Former President Jimmy Carter said Sunday that his latest brain scan found no evidence of melanoma, the serious form of cancer that doctors discovered this summer in his liver and brain.

Carter is battling melanoma, most commonly identified with skin cancer but in a small percentage of cases like Carter’s can show up first on internal organs.

Carter had announced in August he had been diagnosed with melanoma that spread to his brain. It’s that celebratory responses built around Carter’s cancer being “gone” are in real danger of swamping an accurate understanding of cancer biology and of what many patients experience as they cope with cancer or cancer recovery. Even with potent treatments there’s a chance that cancer cells could survive and grow over time.

The drug he was given, pembrolizumab (brand name Keytruda), is part of a rapidly growing class of drugs called immunotherapy, which uses the body’s immune system to fight the cancer. Carter’s grandson James Carter confirmed the good news as well. I am not cancer-free but I am surviving with it and basically doing well,”she said”.

“Our mission is to accelerate the development of new therapies by taking the unique skills and unequaled expertise that has been cultivated at START and expanding it to other strategic locations around the world”, he said.

Now, several months since beginning immunotherapy, Carter’s treatments appear to have worked.

Chemotherapy can be hard on patients-along with killing cancer cells, it can also kill healthy cells. Despite some apparently permanent debilitating side effects, ranging from chemo-induced neuropathy in both feet to a form of radiation enteritis and altered blood-cell counts, I’m incredibly lucky.

“I haven’t been uncomfortable or ill after the treatments were over”, he said.

“We’re looking at helping people live longer”, he said.

Carter, the 39th president of the United States, served between 1977 and 1981 and is now the nation’s second-oldest living president. During treatment, he’s remained active, continuing his humanitarian work and volunteering with ‘Habitat for Humanity’.

Making the drugs affordable needs to be addressed, too, he added.