Jimmy Carter: says he is now cancer free

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said on Sunday that his most recent brain scan showed no signs of cancer.

“My recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones,” Carter said in a statement.He would continue to receive regular three-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab, it said.

Carter, 91, first shared the good news at a Sunday School class he was teaching at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains in the U.S. state of Georgia, according to local newspaper Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“He (Carter) said he got a scan this week and the cancer was gone,” the newspaper cited a church member as saying. “The church, everybody here, just erupted in applause.”

According to the latest update on Carter’s health provided by the Carter Center on Nov. 10, recent tests had shown there was “no evidence of new malignancy and his original problem is responding well to treatment.”

Carter announced in August this year that his cancer had already spread to his brain, adding that there were four small spots of melanoma on his brain.

However, Carter said at that time the pain was “very slight,” adding that he was not feeling any weakness or debility. He immediately received treatment after the announcement.

In August, Carter’s doctor Walter Curran Jr. said at a press conference that apart from radiation treatment, Carter also received injection of a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration in February.

Being designed to boost Carter’s immune system and help his immune system to fight melanoma, the drug doesn’t have “the terrible side effects” that treatments of the past had, according to Curran.

Four family members of Carter, including his father, brother and two sisters, died of pancreatic cancer. Canter said in August that no cancer had been found on his pancreatic so far.

Carter’s health has been closely watched this year. He cut short an election monitoring trip to Guyana in May after falling ill.

Born in 1924, Carter served as the 39th U.S. president from 1977 to 1981. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002