Former US president Jimmy Carter has said that a cancer that was discovered earlier this year on his liver, have spread to his brain. While speaking at a news conference, the Jimmy Carter,90 -year-old said; I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes.
According to Carter, doctors found "four spots of melanoma on my brain -- small spots" after first discovering cancer in August 3 in an operation to remove cancer. But during the surgery, the doctors suspected that the cancer is originated in another part of his body, and later discovered the "two millimetres" size of melanoma in his brain.
He said;
At first, I felt that it was confined to my liver and the operation had completely removed it, so I was quite relieved, And then that same afternoon, we had an M.R.I. of my head and neck, and it showed up that it was already in four places in my brain. So I would say that night and the next day, until I came back up to Emory, I just thought I had a few weeks left.
But I was surprisingly at ease, I’ve had a wonderful life, I’ve had thousands of friends, and I’ve had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence.
Carter then said in the conference that he will undergo a single course of radiation treatment, though more maybe be necessary, and also undergo four treatments with an immune system boosting drug, Keytruda, which will be administered all 3-weeks interval.
The average length of melanoma survival is 11 months, if surgery and radiation do not successfully remove the tumor. But the grandson of Jimmy Carter, Jason Carter, said that he hoped the treatment would allow the former president to fish more and watch his great-grandsons’ baseball games.
Mr Carter had gone to Guyana to monitor elections in May, where he felt not well, and returned early to Atlanta. Doctors at Emory University performed a full physical examination on him and noticed a mass on his liver.
At the time, Mr Carter delayed surgery to complete a tour promoting his book, “A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety”, a book where he talked about his boyhood on depression-era, his time as a naval officer and also the rise in his politics career.
The former president will be treated at the Winship Cancer Institute, a 2 miles from the Carter centre. Carter Centre and the institute are both affiliated with the Emory University.
Other living US presidents have poured out well wishes for the former president ;
The former secretary, Hillary Rodham Clinton and current Secretary of State John F. Kerry have also called to wish him well.
"It's the first time they've called me in a long time," Carter joked.