Former President Jimmy Carter says he is cancer-free

PLAINS, Ga., Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Sunday announced his cancer is gone.

The 91-year-old Georgia Democrat revealed the news to a Sunday school class in Plains, Ga.

"My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones," Carter said in a statement.

Carter was first diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, having a portion of his liver removed in June before an MRI scan in August showed four melanoma lesions had developed on his brain.

"I will continue to receive regular 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab," Carter said Sunday.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted Jill Stuckey, a member of Carter's congregation at Maranatha Baptist Church, as saying the audience "erupted in applause" after hearing the news.

Carter -- a father of four, grandfather of 12 and great-grandfather of 10 -- served as the 39th president for one term between 1977 and 1981.

In 1982, he founded the Carter Center, a public policy non-profit organization dedicated to "efforts to resolve conflict, promote democracy, protect human rights and prevent disease and other afflictions."

Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee referred to as "his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."