Jimmy Carter says he has cancer
ATLANTA – Former President Jimmy Carter revealed that a recent liver surgery found cancer has spread but gave few details about his prognosis in a statement Wednesday.
“Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body,” Carter said in the statement released by the Carter Center. “I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare.”
Carter, 90, announced on Aug. 3 that he had surgery to remove a small mass from his liver.
Good wishes poured in on social media after Carter’s announcement, while President Barack Obama said he and first lady 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 was the nation’s 39th president, defeating Gerald Ford in 1976 with a pledge to always be honest. A number of foreign policy conflicts doomed his bid for a second term, and Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in a landslide.
After leaving the White House, he founded the center in Atlanta in 1982 to promote health care, democracy and other issues globally, often with wife Rosalynn by his side, and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
He has remained active in recent years, making public appearances at the center’s headquarters in Atlanta and traveling overseas, including a May election observation visit to Guyana cut short when Carter developed a cold.
Carter also completed a book tour this summer to promote his latest work, “A Full Life.”
Carter included his family’s history of pancreatic cancer in that memoir, writing that his father, brother and two sisters all died of the disease and said the trend “concerned” the former president’s doctors at Emory.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to President Carter,” said Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.
“Given the president’s age, any treatments, their potential and their impacts, will undoubtedly be discussed carefully with him and his family,” he added.