Former President Jimmy Carter announced Thursday that he will begin radiation treatment for brain cancer in the afternoon — the 90-year-old former Navy officer revealed to the public last week that he also underwent surgery for liver cancer.
In his address he added that his fate was “in the hands of God” after doctors discovered “very small spots” of melanoma on his brain.
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Asked on Thursday if he had any regrets, Carter said he wished he had sent one more helicopter in the failed attempt to rescue the Iran hostages, adding that he would have been re-elected had the effort succeeded. Republican Ronald Reagan defeated Carter, a Democrat, in the 1980 presidential race.
In a break from tradition, Carter chose to deliver the news about his illness to the media himself. He arrived at the news conference at the nonprofit Carter Center in Atlanta walking normally, smiling and wearing blue jeans.
“I am perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” Carter said, noting his deep Christian faith.
He said he was pleased that he did not become angry or despaired. “I am ready for anything and looking forward to a new adventure,” Carter added.
Doctors removed about one tenth of his liver, and a biopsy revealed it was a melanoma, a form of skin cancer that is believed to have originated elsewhere in his body and spread to the liver, he explained.
The proud Georgian (he was the governor of the state from 1971 to 1975) and old peanut farmer was “the man” in the Oval Office from 1977 to 1981, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
He’s scheduled to receive treatment at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta.