Jimmy Carter continues to gain the upper hand in his battle against cancer.
On Sunday, the former president said his doctors had told him he does not need to have any more treatments.
Carter made the announcement at the beginning of his Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. According to people there, he said his doctors at Emory Winship Cancer Institute gave him the good news after an MRI last week.
“He said the doctors determined that he would not need any more treatment now,” said Mandy Flynn, one of Carter’s nieces, who was in the class. “He said he will continue to get scans and MRI’s and if the time comes that they need to start (treatment) back up, they will.”
Carter said in August that doctors had found four small melanoma lesions on his brain. The discovery followed the removal of a lesion on his liver that took about ten percent of the organ. He said he would receive four drug treatments, along with radiation therapy, and that he would cut back significantly on his schedule.
It was the second time in recent months the former president had used his Sunday school class to deliver some personal good news. Back in December he told the packed church that signs of his cancer were gone. He further explained in a statement that his most recent MRI brain scan had not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots or any new ones, but that he would continue with his treatment. He said at the time that he would continue to receive regular treatments of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab every three weeks.
The church burst into spontaneous applause at the time. It was pretty much the same thing this Sunday, according to one of the many out-of-town visitors who regulary make the trek to Maranatha when Carter is teaching.
“Everybody was very happy and grateful to hear it,” said Robert Johnson, who was making his first visit to Carter’s class from Alaska. “And then he went into the lesson for today, which was humility. He did a really good job on that.”
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