Jimmy Carter Due for treatment for Melanoma on His Brain

ATLANTA, G.A. — Former President Jimmy Carter today said he‘ll be treated this afternoon for melanoma on his brain. Carter, 90, discussed details of his cancer diagnosis, which he revealed last week, during a news conference this morning at the Carter Center in Atlanta. He said he found out about the melanoma after having surgery earlier this year to remove a tumor on his liver. Doctors then did a biopsy, found out it was melanoma and, after further treatment, found there were also small four spots of melanoma in his brain. He said he would receive his first radiation treatment this afternoon, for a total of four treatments scheduled in three week intervals. Carter said he had already made peace with the news, and called himself “perfectly at ease,” although he added that when he first learned of the cancer in his brain, he thought he had just a few weeks left to live. “This is in the hands of God,” Carter said. “I‘ll be prepared for anything that comes.” The 39th president had not previously revealed details of the severity of the cancer or whether it can be treated. “Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body,” Carter said in a statement released last week. Jimmy Carter Says That He Has Cancer That Has Spread Excerpt: Jimmy Carter‘s ‘A Full Life‘ Carter was seen in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, Sunday at his church, where he speaks regularly and leads bible study. The peanut farmer-turned-president, whose four years in office were marred by an energy shortage and the Iranian hostage crisis, has redefined what it means to be a former president. He and wife Rosslyn, married for 69 years, have dedicated the past three decades to humanitarian work around the globe. “I’m just as active now as I was 25 or 30, 40 years ago,” Carter told ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos in an interview earlier this year. “I’ll be 91 in October. My travel capability and my vigor, physical vigor, is going to die down. And then I’ll have more time with Rosalynn at home.” But Carter joked today that Rosalynn was finally now getting him to slow down. “For a number of years Rosalynn and I we had planned dramatically reducing our work at the center, but we haven‘t done it yet,” Carter said with a chuckle. Carter says he plans to teach at his church‘s Sunday school this weekend and through the fall, as he has done for more than 25 years. He has also told the CEO of Habitat for Humanity he still hopes to travel to Nepal in November with the group, but that now depends on whether he can postpone the last of his radiation treatments. Photo courtesy of ABC News