Jimmy Carter Says He Is Free Of Cancer -- Could This Be True?
(CBS4) - President Jimmy Carter says he is cancer-free from metastatic melanoma. Could this be so? Especially with such an aggressive and deadly form of the disease?
"Cancer free" was the message that the former president delivered to his Sunday School class after a battery of tests showed no sign of tumors in the brain or elsewhere in the body.
If you recall, Mr. Carter announced in August that he had undergone surgery to remove part of his liver because of a tumor, and that further testing had revealed four lesions, or tumors, had been discovered in his brain.
All of the tumors were believed to be metastatic, meaning they had spread from elsewhere in the body, and that the original tumor was a melanoma which had spread from some unknown place in his body.
So at age 91, Mr. Carter opted for the liver surgery, radiation therapy to the brain, as well as a course of chemotherapy to destroy the cancer. The radiation was specific: it involved only treating the four lesions instead of the whole brain, which was in times past the standard treatment.
He also opted for "targeted" chemotherapy, meaning he used a relatively new treatment which stimulated the body's own immune system to treat the cancer, and one which had very few side effects compared to traditional chemo, which is usually used in other cancers.
So do having scans and blood tests that show no cancer mean "cured"?
Not necessarily ... but signs are very hopeful. The actual growths or tumors could be gone, but there is always the worry that small, isolated cancer cells could be hiding in the bloodstream.
And the actual cure rate in this type of situation is only 5%. But 5% is not zero. And it is more likely than not that Mr. Carter has bumped into that 5% group, meaning he could have many relatively healthy years ahead.
I think as doctors, we are happy yet stunned by this result.
As for the former president, he believes his faith carried him through. And that's a belief that's hard to disagree with.
Dr. Dave Hnida is CBS4's Medical Editor. He blogs about the latest studies and trends in the health world. Read his latest blog entries, check out his bio or follow him on Twitter @drdavehnida
