Former President Jimmy Carter Says Cancer Has Spread To His Brain

Jimmy Carter this morning announced his cancer has spread to his brain. He’ll undergo radiation treatment today.

Sounding upbeat and optimistic, Pres. Jimmy Carter told reporters this morning doctors have fully removed the cancer from his liver, but it has spread to four areas in his brain.

Carter said when he learned of the news, he thought he only had a few weeks to live, but was “surprisingly at ease.” He suggested he expects to live longer, but said he is “ready for a new journey” should the cancer treatments not save his life. “Hope for the best and accept what comes,” he said.

The former Democratic president detailed his expectations of his ability to continue his work at the Carter Center and other endeavors, such as  a trip to Nepal with Habitat For Humanity, which would require a five-week postponement of his last scheduled treatment. it would be his 33rd trip.

“I feel good” Carter says, adding he has “some pain” in his right shoulder, which doctors say is expected.

He also was quite frank and specific in his answers to reports’ questions. 

“At one time my family was the only one on earth that had four members with pancreatic cancer,” Carter noted.

Carter, who said he will be 91 in October, said his message to other cancer patients is “one of hope and acceptance.”

“The best thing I ever did was marrying Rosa,” he said of his wife, Rosalynn Carter. “We have a growing family,” he shared, “a good and harmonious family.”  

Carter, asked if there were anything during his life he wished he had done differently, he quipped he wished he had sent “one more helicopter to get the hostages” from Iran, he quipped. “We would have rescued them and I would have been re-elected,” he added, smiling. Reporters laughed. 

 

This is a developing story and may be updated. 

Image: Screenshot via NBC News