“Trying To Live So I Can Vote,” Jimmy Carter, 100, Defied Odds & Fulfilled Goal of Voting in ’24 Election– Redefining End of Life Cancer Care

According to the Associated Press, two weeks after Carter became a centenarian, he voted by mail for Harris. Carter’s son and one of the family’s spokespersons, Chip, said, “I asked him two months ago if he was trying to live to be 100, and he said, “No, I’m trying to live to vote for Kamala Harris.”

On Carter’s birthday, he was helped outside his Plains, Georgia, home surrounded by friends and family for fresh air and to see airplanes overhead perform a special flyover.

@cbsnews Former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday surrounded by family and friends in his backyard in Plains, #Georgia. CBS News was there as he was wheeled outside, beneath the shade of his trees, to witness a military flyover with four fighter jets. #news #jimmycarter #carter #president #100thbirthday #birthday ♬ original sound – cbsnews

Carter’s Powerful Treatment That’s Helped Him Years After Cancer

While the scope of President Carter’s health when he began hospice care is unclear, he’s managed to do well in the last year and a half despite a series of health scares in prior 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 a success, 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: Immunotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors.

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 his brain and that he 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 own 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 cancers, pancreatic cancer, and breast cancer.

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. More specifically, Keytruda takes the brakes off the immune system to allow the body’s T-cells to do what they are meant to do: fight off invaders or abnormal cells like cancer cells, among other things.

“I’ve had melanoma patients early on who, many years ago, wouldn’t have had a chance,” Dr. Scott Strome explains to SurvivorNet.

Dr. Strome is the Chair of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He stresses the incredible impact and adds hope immunotherapy and checkpoint inhibitors have had on melanoma patients.

“[Melanoma patients who] come back to my clinic now, I can’t say I cured of their disease, that’s probably the wrong term, but they’re alive, and they don’t have any evidence of disease that we can tell. That’s the greatest feeling you can have as a doctor,” Dr. Strome added.

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.

Since February 2023, President Carter has received hospice care, meaning his doctors stopped medical intervention for any ongoing ailments.

What Carter’s Hospice Care May Entail

“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. It’s recommended that families faced with potential hospice care talk to their care team early enough before pursuing hospice care to take advantage of all the comforts it provides.

WATCH: Palliative care improves your overall treatment by focusing on comfort.

“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.

“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 will stop treatment or even wants to talk about that, but simply that he or she thinks supporting all aspects of your health is important. That could be pain control, [relief for] nausea or constipation, or mental health care. All of these other symptoms that commonly arise and are intertwined inextricably with your cancer care,” Dr. Diver added.

Dr. Scott Rushing, a gynecologic oncologist and surgeon with Compass Oncology, expands on this by saying that palliative care is meant “to try and optimize a patient’s quality of life.”

“Quality of life is something that we’ve always got to keep at front stage and center,” he previously told SurvivorNet. “Palliative care is very important in helping our patients have many good days.”

Dr. Rushing continues by saying that palliative care can transition to hospice care “when we have reached a point where we don’t have any therapy that we feel is going to be effective.”

WATCH:

In 2016, based on results from nine randomized clinical trials, one quasi-experimental trial, and five secondary analyses, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) issued guidelines stating that “inpatients and outpatients with advanced cancer should receive dedicated palliative care services early in the disease course, concurrent with active treatment.”

Some oncologists have adjusted their language regarding palliative care because of the common misconception that it is similar to end-of-life hospice care.

Questions for Your Doctor

If you are in the middle of your cancer journey or caring for a loved one who is asking questions about late-stage care, the following questions can help you begin your conversation.

• How will I know if I need palliative care to aid my cancer treatment?
• How does palliative care differ from the care I’m getting now?
• Who provides palliative care?
• Will my insurance cover palliative care?
• Is there a moment when palliative care becomes hospice care?

Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.

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