Former US president Jimmy Carter says cancer has spread to his brain

ATLANTA, Aug 20th, 2015 (EFE).- U.S. former President Jimmy Carter, who was diagnosed with cancer on his liver earlier this month, said Thursday that the disease has spread to his brain.
Carter said at a news conference at the Carter Center that upon hearing the latest news he immediately assumed he “had just a few weeks left,” adding that his life is now in the hands of his doctors and God.

The 90-year-old former president, who was in office from 1977 to 1981, said the cancer began in an unidentified part of his body before spreading to his liver and then his brain.

Doctors found four melanoma spots on his brain, Carter told reporters, adding that he will begin radiation treatment later Thursday.

The former head of state said he will have to cut back “fairly dramatically” on his work at the Carter Center, which seeks to prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy and improve health.

Doctors discovered his cancer during an Aug. 3 operation to remove a tumor from his liver, Carter said, adding that he does not feel weak and has not yet experienced any symptoms of the disease.

The Democratic politician said his family has an extensive history of the disease, noting that his father and three siblings died of pancreatic cancer and his mother had breast cancer that later also spread to her pancreas.

Despite his age, Carter said he has never considered not trying to fight the disease and has full confidence in the doctors at the hospital at Atlanta-based Emory University, where the former president is a professor.