|
The 91-year-old
Nobel Peace Prize winner will continue to be observed by
doctors, but will not need treatment with a promising
immunotherapy drug that helps the body's immune system target
cancer cells, said Deanna Congileo, spokeswoman for his
nonprofit public policy center, the Carter Center.
Congileo told Reuters in an email that if doctors find that the
former president's cancer returns, he will resume treatment at
Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute, where he received
radiation and immunotherapy treatment from August 2015 through
February, 2016. Doctors also surgically removed a portion of his
liver where melanoma lesions were present.
The former president shared his news at a Sunday school class he
teaches in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, Congileo said.
Carter started treatment in August for melanoma that had spread
from his liver to his brain. In December, he said he was
cancer-free but that he would continue to receive treatment.
At the time, Carter said he would continue to receive regular
doses of pembrolizumab, a new treatment that is part of a
promising class of drugs that harness the body's immune system
to fight cancer. The immunotherapy is manufactured by Merck & Co
under the brand name Keytruda.
While about 30 percent of patients treated with the drug
experience significant shrinkage of their cancer, only
approximately 5 percent experience complete remission, said Dr.
Marc Ernstoff, director of the melanoma program at the Cleveland
Clinic's Taussig Cancer Institute in Ohio who is familiar with
the drug but has not been involved with Carter's care.
Carter, a Democrat, was elected president in 1976, and served
only one term. He helped negotiate the 1978 Camp David Accords
between Israel and Egypt.
But his presidency was clouded by economic problems and the
Iranian hostage crisis, and Carter lost his 1980 re-election bid
to Republican Ronald Reagan.
He has since won worldwide acclaim as a humanitarian and
advocate for democracy, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Sandra Maler)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
|
