President Obama tweets support to President Carter following cancer announcement

“I was just completely at ease”. “It’s in the hands of God”, he said. And I will be prepared for anything that comes. He said other family members may have to represent him there.

Carter underwent surgery on August. 3 to remove a tumor from his liver, but the cancer spread to his brain.

Wash U and Siteman Cancer Center dermatology chief Dr. Lynn Cornelius says there has been a lot of progress in fighting melanoma, which is one of the most serious forms of skin cancer.

“While this remains an incurable disease, there have been tremendous improvements in treating melanoma with targeted therapies that take advantages of this cancer’s genetic vulnerabilities, and others that harness the body’s immune system to fight this cancer more effectively”, Raptis explained. A PET scan looked suspicious for cancer, and he started talking with doctors about his options.

His father, his brother, and his two sisters died from the disease, which his mother also developed later in her life.

Clad in a sport coat, red tie and blue jeans, Carter appeared relaxed, smiling frequently and joking at times as he discussed his condition candidly.

He said he will cut back “fairly dramatically” on his work at the Carter Centre foundation. During treatment for the cold, his doctors found a mass on his liver that they believed was cancerous, but surgery was delayed because Mr. Carter was scheduled to begin a book tour.

“Five years ago, [Carter’s] doctors would have had nothing available, especially for someone his age, ” Turnham said.

Carter Center was founded by the former president and his wife Rosalynn in 1982.

“Every patient is going to be different”, he said.

In 2014, Carter said that he could’ve “wiped Iran off the map”, but instead opted for a helicopter rescue mission that failed. He says doctors are monitoring closely.

Carter was U.S.’ 39th President, advancing as a virtual unknown on the national stage to defeat President Gerald Ford in 1976.

As for regrets, he mentioned the hostage crisis. He mainly focused on global health care and democracy as well. The center, based in Atlanta, launched a new phase of Carter’s public life that would earn him a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.

He and his wife still make regular appearances at events in Atlanta and travel overseas.

The president said he’ll continue to teach Sunday school in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, for as long as he is able.

He said he was calm when he received the diagnosis, “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence”.

Carter says he is not feeling despair or anger over his health. We talked about it again I was 90. We thought about it again when I was 85; we thought about it again when I was 90. “I think I have been as blessed as any human being in the world”.

Ribas, who is not involved in treating the former president, said patients who benefited from the drug “responded immediately, ” with some tumors shrinking or vanishing in a matter of weeks. “You know, I have had a wonderful life”.