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No More Cancer Treatment For Carter by Nobody: 12:54am On Mar 07, 2016 |
Jimmy Carter announced Sunday that he no longer needs treatment
for cancer, less than seven months after revealing he had been
diagnosed with melanoma that spread to his brain.
Carter, 91, shared the news at one of his regular Sunday School
classes at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains,
Georgia.
Carter always starts his lessons with a brief update on his recent
activities. This week, Carter told the class, he received an MRI lasting
more than 2 hours.
"And then the doctors determined that I didn't need any more
treatment," Carter said in a video posted by WXIA-TV. "So I'm not
going to have any more treatment."
He smiled as the audience applauded.
Carter's spokeswoman Deanna Congileo said in an email that his
doctors will continue to perform scans to ensure cancer cells have
not returned, and Carter will "resume treatment if necessary." A
spokesman for Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute, where
Carter has been treated, declined to comment on Sunday, citing
patient privacy.
Carter's treatment plan for the aggressive form of cancer including a
round of targeted radiation at several tumors on his brain and doses
of an immune-boosting drug every three weeks from August through
February. The drug, Keytruda, was approved not long before Carter's
announcement and helps his body seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Medical experts have called Keytruda and similar immune therapy
drugs "game-changing" for patients with melanoma. But the drugs are
relatively new, and doctors are still learning about how they should be
used and for how long, said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical
officer for the American Cancer Society . He is not involved in Carter's
treatment.
"Some people believe they should be continued as long as a patient is
doing well, some feel the drugs should continue for a period of time
and then be stopped," Lichtenfeld said. "This is clearly a (decision)
based on individual evidence specific to the president and made with
his doctors."
Dr. Douglas Johnson, a melanoma specialist at Vanderbilt-Ingram
Cancer Center who is not treating Carter, said the FDA did not provide
a specific end-date for patients who see improvement while taking the
drugs. Patients who see results may want to stop but battle with fear
that the cancer could return, he said.
"That has become a very difficult question," Johnson said. "We can
say that patients who have stopped treatment have continued to do
very well, but the drug has been around less than 10 years. Whether
all patients have the same results, we don't know."
Carter made another unexpected announcement about his health at a
December class, telling the audience that a recent scan of his brain
detected no sign of cancer. At the time, Carter told the group that he
planned to continue receiving doses of Keytruda every three weeks.
He has said the drug caused few side effects.
Jill Stuckey, a Maranatha Baptist Church member, said in a phone
interview that Carter's updates have become "a pattern for our
church."
"President Carter comes in, tells us phenomenal news and we all
applaud," Stuckey, also a close friend of the Carters, said. "We're all
on pins and needles wondering how things are going, because you
never know from looking at somebody."
Carter has remained active throughout his treatment, including
participating in a building project with Habitat for Humanity. He also
continued work at the Carter Center, the human rights organization he
founded after leaving the White House , contrary to his initial plans to
step back during treatment.
Tim Turnham, executive director of the Melanoma Research
Foundation, said Carter's age or busy schedule may have been a
factor in deciding to stop the treatment.
"When you have a drug that's working to keep cancer at bay, it's a
hard decision to stop," Turnham, who is not involved with Carter's
treatment, said. "It really becomes a conversation between the patient
and their doctor." For more news visit www.kleeqers.com |
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