Former President Jimmy Carter announced Wednesday that he has cancer, and will be undergoing treatment in his home state of Georgia.
“Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body,” he said. “I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare.”
“A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week.”
On August 3, the Carter Center announced that the ex-president had an elective procedural at Emory University hospital “to remove a small mass in his liver.”
“His operation proceeded without issues, and the prognosis is excellent for a full recovery,” the Carter Center added then.
“Michelle and I send our best wishes to President Carter for a fast and full recovery,” said President Obama in a statement Wednesday evening. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Rosalynn and the entire Carter family as they face this challenge with the same grace and determination that they have shown so many times before. Jimmy, you’re as resilient as they come, and along with the rest of America, we are rooting for you.”
President Obama also called Carter to wish him well.
Carter, who will turn 91 on October 1, was elected in 1976 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, and famously promised, “I’ll never lie to you” during his election campaign.
The former peanut farmer was a senator in his home state, and then the governor of Georgia in the early 1970s.
He was ousted by President Ronald Reagan in the landslide election of 1980, and returned to Georgia to write books and help build affordable housing. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
