By Bob Allen
Former President Jimmy Carter announced Dec. 6 that he is cancer-free, four months after revealing that cancer removed from his liver had spread to four spots on his brain.
Carter, 91, a lifelong Baptist who identifies with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, released a statement through the Carter Center saying his most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones.
He will continue to receive regular three-week treatments of pembrolizumab, a new drug used with amazing results against some forms of cancer by using the power of the body’s own immune system.
Carter first shared the good news Sunday morning at the Sunday school class he teaches a Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga.
“The first time I went for an MRI the four places were still there but they were responding to the treatment,” Carter said on video posted online by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “And when I went this week they didn’t find any cancer at all. So I have good news.”
“A lot of people prayed for me, and I appreciate that,” the 39th president and Nobel Peace Prize winner commented. “So that’s what I’ve been doing. I wanted to tell you the good news, because that happened this week.”
In addition to his humanitarian work at the Carter Center and with Habitat for Humanity, Carter is convener of a movement called the New Baptist Covenant working to unite Baptists in the United States across racial and theological lines to work together on common concerns.
Hannah McMahan, who works as New Baptist Covenant coordinator, said Carter plans to attend the next NBC national meeting, scheduled April 18-20 in Atlanta.
“President Carter means so much to so many in our Baptist family,” McMahan said. “We have been praying for him and are now eager to celebrate with him.”
Diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma, Carter said in August he thought he had only weeks to live but after meeting with doctors was “surprisingly at ease.”
“Now I feel it’s in the hands of God, whom I worship, and I’ll be prepared for anything that comes,” he said in an Aug. 20 news conference at the Carter Center.
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. It is treatable if discovered early, as it usually is, but can be difficult to treat if it has spread to other parts of the body.
According to WebMD, in the past patients with melanoma that had spread to the brain could expect to live six to 12 months. Philip Wise, a pastor long active in CBF leadership, died in 2009 less than a year after being diagnosed with metastatic melanoma.
New therapeutic options combining immunotherapy and radiation are vastly improving outcomes with advanced melanoma, without the severe side effects associated with chemotherapy.
The new treatments are expensive, however. Keytruda, Merck’s brand name for pembrolizumab approved by the FDA in 2014, costs $12,500 per patient per month, or $150,000 a year.
After his diagnosis, Carter said he was finally cutting back on activities, but he actually increased his teaching schedule at Maranatha Baptist Church.
The congregation set up a new system to accommodate the increased volume of visitors but is now back on regular visitor guidelines and no longer issuing advanced tickets or seating assignments on Saturday.
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