JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said a scan of his torso conducted last week found no signs of melanoma, the cancer that doctors discovered last summer in his liver and brain, but he will continue treatment on Feb. 9th.
A previous brain scan found that four cancerous lesions were gone with no new evidence of new cancer cells, Carter said in December.
“I haven’t had more brain scans, but I have had a scan of my chest and abdomen,” he told The Associated Press on a call to South Sudan from London. “These last scans I had last week didn’t show any sign of recurrence of the cancer.”
Carter, who celebrated his 91st birthday in October, said the results look “promising,” but added his doctors remain “very cautious.”
“They could be so minute, the cancer points in your body, that sometimes the scans don’t detect the cancer that’s there. So I’m still continuing my treatment on February the 9th,” Carter said. The former president said he has been receiving doses of the anti-melanoma drug Keytruda every three weeks.
Carter is in London to discuss his campaign against Guinea worm disease, a painful affliction which his foundation the Carter Center has worked since 1986 to eradicate.
Carter said Tuesday that Guinea worm could be eradicated in a year or two if recent progress continues. There were only 22 cases globally last year, down from 126 in 2014 and an estimated 3.5 million when the Carter Center began its work.
“I have a good chance I think of outlasting the last Guinea worm,” Carter said. “That’s my ultimate goal.”
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