Former President Jimmy Carter Says Cancer Has Spread To Brain
ATLANTA (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Former Secretary of State and current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is among those sending former President Jimmy Carter well wishes.
Carter announced Thursday that his cancer is on four small spots on his brain and he will immediately begin radiation treatment, saying he is "at ease with whatever comes."
"I'm ready for anything and looking forward to a new adventure," said Carter, appearing upbeat and making jokes as he openly talked about his cancer during a news conference.
"I've had exciting, adventurous, gratifying existence, so I was surprisingly at ease, much more so than my wife was," Carter said when asked how he reacted to the news.
So far, the pain has been "very slight" and Carter said he hasn't felt any weakness or debility. Still, he will cut back on his work with the Carter Center and will give the treatment regimen his "top priority." His first radiation treatment was set for Thursday afternoon.
Carter, 90, said at first he thought the cancer was confined to his liver and that the operation earlier this month had completely removed it, "so I was quite relieved."
But that same afternoon, an MRI showed it was on his brain.
"I just thought I had a few weeks left, but I was surprisingly at ease. I've had a wonderful life," the 90-year-old Carter said. "It's in God's hands. I'll be prepared for anything that comes."
He didn't give any prognosis, but spoke about receiving treatments for at least several months and left open the possibility of traveling to Nepal in November.
Carter announced Aug. 12 that liver surgery found cancer that has spread to other parts of his body. Carter said doctors took out about a tenth of his liver and that they believe they removed all the cancer there.
He said it's still not clear exactly where the cancer originated, although with melanoma, he's told that 98 percent of the time it develops first in the skin. 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. The cancer spots on his brain are about 2 millimeters.
His father, brother and two sisters died of pancreatic cancer. His mother also had the disease. Carter said no cancer has been found on his pancreas so far.
Carter said President George W. Bush and Bush's father called him Wednesday, and he has received well-wishes from President Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry.
That's "the first time they've called me in a long time," Carter said to laughter.
Carter's health has been closely watched this year. He cut short an election monitoring trip to Guyana in May. A spokeswoman said he did not feel well and Carter later said he had a bad cold.
The center announced Carter had a small mass removed from his liver Aug. 3. Nine days later, Carter said that surgery revealed the cancer.
As CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez explained, it's impossible to predict what the prognosis for Carter might be.
No one has suggested aggressive chemo or surgery which probably wouldn't be indicative even in someone who's not 90.
The four brain radiation treatments that Carter started on Thursday, will likely make him tired.
Prognosis for metatastic melanoma has been revolutionized in the past few years thanks to immune stimulating drugs, one of which Carter said he would be taking.
Those drugs have extended quality of life from 6-12 months in cases like Carter's to years and in some cases, have even served as a cure.
Carter's melanoma did not start in the skin. About 4 or 5 percent of melanomas do not start in the skin and are not related to sun exposure. They tend to be more aggressive and are found at a more advanced stage because they occur in areas that are much more hidden compared to skin.
Sometimes melanomas actually disappear, but not before they metastisize, so the original cancer is never found, only the ones that spread to other organs like the liver and brain.
Carter was the nation's 39th president, advancing as a virtual unknown on the national stage to defeat President Gerald Ford in 1976. But several foreign policy crises, in particular the Iran hostage crisis, crushed his bid for re-election and Ronald Reagan swept into the White House.
The native of tiny Plains, Georgia, rebuilt his career as a humanitarian guiding the center focused on global issues, including health care and democracy. Carter earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, helped defuse nuclear tensions in the Koreas and helped avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti.
He and his wife, Rosalynn, still make regular appearances at events in Atlanta and travel overseas. When the couple is in Plains, Carter frequently teaches a Sunday School class before services at Maranatha Baptist Church. He plans to teach this weekend as scheduled, according to the church.
"No matter where we are in the world, we're always looking forward to getting home to Plains," Carter said.
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