Celebrating Life
- Former President Jimmy Carter is just a couple of weeks away from turning 100, defying doctor’s expectations when he began hospice care in February 2023.
- Carter’s home state of Georgia is celebrating his life with a “Celebration in Song” where numerous music artists sang in his honor. Georgia Congressmen also introduced a bill with hopes to present Carter the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award given by Congress.
- The former president is also a cancer survivor whose metastatic melanoma was previously treated with Keytruda, a type of immunotherapy drug called a checkpoint inhibitor.
- Immunotherapy drugs have significantly impacted advancements in cancer treatment. They work by activating immune cells against cancerous cells, using the body’s ability to fight off the cells. Immunotherapy drugs are used for many different types of cancer, including melanoma, bladder cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, blood cancer, pancreatic cancer, and breast cancer.
Former president Jimmy Carter will add another accomplishment to his illustrious and decorated life: centenarian. He turns 100 on October 1st, and ahead of his birthday, several members of Congress are working to honor the 39th president with a Congressional Gold Medal.
Carter, 99, currently receives home hospice care after surviving a string of health challenges over the years, including metastatic melanoma – a type of advanced skin cancer.
Georgia Congressmen Sanford D. Bishop and Austin Scott introduced a bill to honor Jimmy Carter with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award Congress bestows.
“Jimmy Carter embodies the best of our country’s ideals. He is a model of compassion, duty, and selfless service. Georgia is proud of this native son, a humble man from Plains, who has accomplished so much in his life,” the Congressmen said in a press release.
Expert Resources on Melanoma
Carter’s Remarkable Journey
According to the Washington Post, Carter’s family was told once he began hospice care in February 2023, he would not live beyond a week. More than 19 months later, Carter still smiles in his rural Georgia home. His wife, the late Rosalyn, died last year at 96.
Jimmy Carter served as President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. The former peanut farmer, Georgia Governor, and Navy servicemember faced several challenges domestically and abroad, including an energy crisis and mounting issues in the Middle East. The Iranian hostage crisis influenced his defeat of President Ronald Reagan. During the crisis, Carter tried to secure the safe return of hostages.
Jimmy Carter is the longest-lived American president, and his legacy has become more adored in the five decades since he left the White House. He has long advocated for democracy, public health, and human rights and was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. However, amid those accolades, Carter also successfully overcame health challenges that helped grant him the blessing of celebrating 77 years of marriage to the former first lady.
Well into his golden years, Carter entered hospice care early last year. “Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort, and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life,” the National Institute of Health (NIH) explains.
Hospice care provides comfort care but does not attempt to cure the illness. Families facing potential hospice care should talk to their care team early enough before pursuing hospice care to take advantage of its comforts.
“Starting hospice early may be able to provide months of meaningful care and quality time with loved ones,” the NIH says.
During palliative care, the patient is provided specialized medical care to manage symptoms associated with their medical condition. This form of care may also offer treatment “intended to cure” the illness instead of hospice care, which does not.
WATCH: Palliative care improves your overall treatment by focusing on comfort.
“It’s not the same thing as hospice. It’s really important to recognize that palliative care, whether provided by your oncologist or by a specialty palliative care team, is an important adjunct to your oncologic care,” Dr. Lisa Diver, a gynecologic oncologist and Medical Director at ImmunoGen, tells SurvivorNet.
“It doesn’t mean that your doctor is going to stop treatment or even wants to talk about that, but simply that he or she thinks it’s important to support all aspects of your health. That could be pain control, [relief for] nausea or constipation, or mental health care. All these other symptoms that commonly arise and are intertwined inextricably with your cancer care,” Dr. Diver added.
While the scope of President Carter’s health when he began hospice care is unclear, he’s had several health scares over the years.
Carter underwent elective surgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, “to remove a small mass in his liver” in August 2015. The operation was successful, but it also revealed he had cancer that had spread or metastasized to other parts of his body. He received care for his metastatic melanoma at Emory’s Winship Cancer Institute.
WATCH: Understanding Your Melanoma Diagnosis.
Melanoma starts in the same cells that give your skin, hair, and eyes their color. Only in melanoma do the cells change in a way that allows them to spread to other organs. While it’s mostly found on areas of your skin exposed to the sun, it can also develop in areas that rarely receive sun rays. These areas may include the palms of your hands, soles of your feet, your eyes, inside your mouth, and under your nails.
“At the time, Carter thought he might have only weeks to live, but Winship doctors quickly developed a treatment plan for him, beginning with stereotactic radiation to control metastatic tumors in his brain and a new immunotherapy drug that worked systemically,” a statement from the Cancer Institute reads.
During a press conference before his first radiation treatment, the former president clarified that his melanoma had spread to his liver and brain and would have four rounds of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab(brand name Keytruda) at three-week intervals.
Immunotherapy drugs work by activating immune cells against cancerous cells using the body’s ability to fight off the cells.
WATCH: What Do Checkpoint Inhibitors Do for Cancer Treatment?
Carter’s drug Keytruda is a type of immunotherapy called a checkpoint inhibitor, which works by interfering with signaling pathways between T cells and cancer cells and prevents cancer cells from hiding from the body’s T cells.
“I’ve had melanoma patients early on who, many years ago, wouldn’t have had a chance,” Dr. Scott Strome explains to SurvivorNet.
The former president reportedly announced to his church in March 2016 that doctors stopped his treatment after seeing no more signs of tumors. Then, in 2019, Carter had surgery to relieve pressure on his brain caused by bleeding from his multiple falls at home.
In recent months, Carter has made rare public appearances.
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