Jimmy Carter is immediately beginning radiation treatment to combat cancer that has spread to his brain, the former president announced Thursday.
Carter, who is 90 years old, said he was “surprisingly at ease” when he received the news that the melanoma previously found in his liver has now been discovered in four spots in his brain. He will begin his first course of treatment later today, he announced in a press conference in Atlanta.
“It is in the hands of the God who I worship,” Carter told reporters, with his wife, Rosalynn, at his side. He said he’ll cut back “fairly dramatically” his work at the Carter Center but he still plans to teach Sunday School this weekend.
Carter had a small mass removed from his liver earlier this month, and last week he announced that surgery had revealed the cancer. He initially felt ill back in May, during a trip to Guyana.
Carter was the nation’s 39th president, serving just one term before being defeated by President Ronald Reagan in 1980. A Georgia native, Carter initially worked as a peanut farmer before becoming the state’s governor. He earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his work as a humanitarian focusing on healthcare and democracy.
Carter said Thursday he’s currently feeling “good” and plans to follow the instruction of his doctors. “I can’t really anticipate how I’ll be feeling,” he said. “Obviously I’ll have to defer quite substantially to my doctors who are in charge of the treatment.”
