Jimmy Carter’s melanoma disappears from brain scans after immunotherapy

One day in 2015, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter held a press conference and revealed that his cancer had spread to his brain. Speaking at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Carter said, "Earlier this month, surgery removed a melanoma from my liver, but four new melanomas were found," adding, "The cancer could spread to other organs in my body."

Carter said, "I thought I had only a few weeks left to live, but, surprisingly, I felt quite at peace," and added, "My future is in God’s hands, and I’m prepared for what lies ahead." At 91, despite being elderly and seriously ill, he conducted the press conference with good humor. "When news of my cancer battle came out, former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama, called me," he said, drawing laughs with the remark, "It had been a long time since they’d called."

Asked what he regretted most in his life, Carter pointed to the failed attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran during his presidency. "If I had sent one more helicopter, I would have rescued the hostages and won reelection," he joked again. Carter looked healthy that day, but his medical team said a cure was unlikely. Walter J. Curran Jr., a professor at Emory University Hospital and Carter’s physician, said, "We don’t expect a cure for patients whose melanoma has spread to other organs. The goal is to control the disease and maintain a good quality of life."

Meanwhile, Carter’s medical team announced that they had begun radiation therapy that day, along with treatment using Keytruda, a new melanoma drug recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

News that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter had been “cured” of melanoma has now made headlines—even though he had once been saying goodbye.

Carter, who had said his melanoma had spread from his liver to his brain, issued a statement saying, "A recent brain MRI showed that the cancer is gone (cancer free). I plan to continue regular immunotherapy with pembrolizumab every three weeks."

Medically, however, “complete remission”—meaning that no cancer cells are detectable in tests after treatment—is more accurate than “cure.” The news has given Keytruda, the immunotherapy drug he received (generic name: pembrolizumab), a major publicity boost, dubbed the “Carter effect.”

Unlike conventional cancer drugs, which attack tumors directly, cancer immunotherapy works by introducing engineered immune proteins into the immune system, stimulating it so immune cells selectively attack tumor cells. In other words, rather than treating the disease directly, the drug strengthens weakened immune cells, enabling the body to become healthier and eliminate cancer cells on its own.

These drugs inhibit tumor cells by acting on signaling pathways between tumor cells and inhibitory receptors on the surface of immune cells, including PD-1, CTLA-4, and LAG-3. Drug development has recently accelerated, particularly for melanoma. Pembrolizumab is a leading drug that targets PD-L1 (Programmed Death-Ligand).

At the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 51st Annual Meeting (ASCO 2015), held in Chicago in May 2015, new data were presented not only for melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer, but also for advanced bladder, gastric, and head and neck cancers. Researchers also presented additional findings on colorectal, esophageal, ovarian, renal cell, and small cell lung cancer (SCLC), marking progress across a total of 10 cancer types.

After showing substantial effectiveness against cancer, the drug was approved by the FDA in the United States in October 2015 to treat metastatic non-small cell lung cancer that expresses PD-L1 and has progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy.

Drugs that help the body overcome cancer rather than attack cancer cells directly are being developed one after another and showing promising results. Google’s dream of extending the human lifespan to 500 years may not be mere fantasy; it seems we are gradually moving closer to it.

Attorney Sangki Lee

· Registered patent attorney, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

· J.D., Loyola University School of Law

· Senior researcher, Landauer

· Researcher, Panasonic

· M.S. in Computer Science, University of Illinois

· B.S. in Computer Science, University of Illinois

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Email: sang@dream-law.com

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