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Jimmy Carter says cancer found in his brain; 'surprisingly at ease'

"I have had a wonderful life, I've had thousands of friends and I've had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence."

By Andrew V. Pestano
Former President of the United States and co-founder of The Carter Center, Jimmy Carter, speaks at the preview of Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, a new exhibition about scientific and social innovations that are ridding the world of ancient afflictions in New York City on Jan. 12, 2015. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Former President of the United States and co-founder of The Carter Center, Jimmy Carter, speaks at the preview of Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, a new exhibition about scientific and social innovations that are ridding the world of ancient afflictions in New York City on Jan. 12, 2015. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

ATLANTA, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Former President of the United States Jimmy Carter spoke on Thursday about his continuing battle with cancer, which has been identified as melanoma, as it has been located in his brain.

Carter explained during a press conference at The Carter Center in Atlanta, Ga., that he suffered a cold while he was monitoring a presidential election in Guyana in May.

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He later returned to the United States and received a complete physical evaluation at Emory University, where he is a professor.

An MRI scan showed that a 2.5 cubic centimeter tumor was in Carter's liver. A P.E.T. scan and biopsy later confirmed that it was cancerous melanoma on Aug. 3 and the tumor was removed.

Carter said doctors have been attempting to find the origin of the melanoma, as 98 percent of melanoma originates from skin cancer instead of internal organs, he explained.

While searching for the origin of the cancer, doctors found four spots of cancerous melanoma in Carter's brain, each a size of about 2 millimeters. The former president will receive his first radiation treatment for the melanoma in his brain Thursday afternoon, and is scheduled to four more treatments at three-week intervals.

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Doctors will continue to look for the origin of the melanoma. Carter said he will cut down his work schedule "fairly dramatically" at Emory University and at The Carter Center as his treatment continues.

"I'll try as best I can to continue my work as a professor at Emory and to attend some of the [Carter Center] meetings, but I would say that the rest of my plans will be determined by my consultations with the doctors and what I need to do to get adequate treatment for the melanoma that exists, at least has existed, in my liver," Carter said in the conference. "They think they got it all there, but it has shown up now in four places in my brain and is likely to show up other places in my body as the scans detect it in the future."

When asked about his initial reaction to the cancer diagnosis, Carter said "at first, I felt that it was confined to my liver and that the operation had completely removed it, so I was quite relieved," adding how "that same afternoon, we had an MRI of my head and neck and it showed up that it was in four places in my brain... I just thought I had a few weeks left."

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"But I was surprisingly at ease," Carter continued. "I have had a wonderful life, I've had thousands of friends and I've had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence, so I was surprisingly at ease -- much more so than my wife was... it's in the hands of God and my worship, and I'll be prepared for anything that comes."

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