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Saturday 22 August 2015 - 05:53

Jimmy Carter says he is 'at ease with whatever comes'

Story Code : 481216
Former US president Jimmy Carter discusses his cancer diagnosis during a press conference at the Carter Center on August 20, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Former US president Jimmy Carter discusses his cancer diagnosis during a press conference at the Carter Center on August 20, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia, Carter said he will have a focused type of radiation to remove four spots of cancer that have developed in his brain. The radiation treatment began on Thursday.
 
Carter had already undergone surgery to remove the cancer from his liver, but an MRI scan later found four new spots of melanoma on his brain.
 
"I'm perfectly at ease with whatever comes," said the 90-year-old statesman, who travels around the world to support humanitarian causes, adding that his situation is "in the hands of God."
 
“I’ve had a wonderful life, I’ve had thousands of friends, and I’ve had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence,” he said.
 
Carter's cancer would be treated with Merck & Co's Keytruda, a new treatment that strengthens the body's immune system to fight the disease.
 
Cancer experts have expressed hope that Carter might survive because of this new radiation technique, known as stereotactic radiation, which allows doctors to tightly focus beams on each specific tumor.
 
“Twenty years ago, any patient with that type of diagnosis would have received full brain radiation without much likelihood of durable benefit,” said Dr. Walter J. Curran Jr., the executive director of the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory.
 
He added that these new treatments allow “most people” to “go on with their regular daily life.”
 
"Five years ago, we would have given him [Carter] six months to live," said Dr. Anna Pavlick, co-director of the melanoma program at NYU Langone Medical Center's cancer center. "In this day and age, we can't even put a label on it."
 
On August 12, Carter revealed that he has liver cancer that has spread to other parts of his body. He said he underwent surgery to remove a small mass in his liver on August 3.
 
Following Carter's announcement, President Barack Obama expressed his good wishes, saying he and his wife Michelle Obama wish Carter a fast and full recovery.
 
"Jimmy, you're as resilient as they come, and along with the rest of America, we are rooting for you," Obama said in a statement.
 
Carter, a Democrat from Georgia, was the 39th president of the United States. He was in office from 1977 to 1981.
 
A year after leaving the White House, he founded the Carter Center in Atlanta to promote healthcare, democracy and other issues.
 
Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace prize in 2002 for his commitment to finding peaceful solutions to international conflicts and his work for human rights and the promotion of democracy.
 
The former US president is a member of The Elders group of retired prominent world figures "working together for peace and human rights". He published his latest book last month, titled "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety."
 
Carter has also emerged in recent years as an outspoken critic of Israel for its oppression and brutality against the Palestinian people.
 
In his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, published in November 2006, Carter states that Israel's continued control and colonization of Palestinian lands have been the primary obstacles to a comprehensive peace agreement.
 
He declared that Israel's current policies in the occupied Palestinian territories constitute "a system of apartheid, with two peoples occupying the same land, but completely separated from each other, with Israelis totally dominant and suppressing violence by depriving Palestinians of their basic human rights."
 
In his news conference on Thursday, Carter, who struggled to establish peace in the Middle East as president, said, "Right now, I think the prospects are more dismal than any time I remember in the last 50 years.”
 
"The whole process is practically dormant,” he said. “Israel has no desire for a two-state solution… . And the United States has practically no influence, compared to past years, in either Israel or Palestine."
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