The 39th President of the United States of America, James Earl Carter Jr, clocks 100 today October 1, 2024.
Observers say it is the first of its kind for any American President, living or dead. Carter is the oldest of the six living U.S. presidents as well as the nation’s longest-lived former president.
Carter, who has been widowed and who had surmounted various health issues on his journey to centenary, was diagnosed with a cancer that had spread to his brain nine years ago when he was 91. But, like the great fighter that he is, he has lived to tell the story!
Carter, an American politician and humanitarian, served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 76th governor of Georgia from 1971 to 1975, and a Georgia state senator from 1963 to 1967.
Last year when he was 99, he was deemed the oldest living, longest-lived and longest-married president, and has the longest post-presidency. He is also the fourth-oldest living former state leader.
He lost his wife of 77 years on November 19, 2023. She was aged 96, having been married since 1946.
Nine years ago, Carter held a news conference at the Carter Center in Atlanta to talk about his cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Then age 91, Carter explained that a bad cold the previous May had led to a thorough physical, which by early August 2015 resulted in a diagnosis of melanoma, an extremely dangerous form of skin cancer. He had liver surgery earlier that month, and doctors identified four spots where the cancer had spread to his brain.
Luck played a role, of course. But there’s no question, experts say, that he’s alive today because of the immune therapy he received.
“It’s kind of a trite term, but in so many ways, he’s kind of the poster child for immune therapy,” said Dr. Stephen Hodi, who directs the Melanoma Center and the Center for Immuno-Oncology at the Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center in Boston.” There were so many issues that he exemplified as a patient.”
Back then, the treatment was a new addition to the cancer arsenal. Just four years earlier, the Food and Drug Administration had approved the first so-called checkpoint inhibitor, generically called ipilimumab. Carter received the second such drug, pembrolizumab, which was authorized only the year before he was given it.
Now, these treatments and other cancer immunotherapies are among the major pillars of cancer care, alongside surgery, chemotherapy and radiation ‒ not just in melanoma, where the approach first took hold, but in dozens of other tumor types as well.
Carter’s treatment came on the cusp of the time doctors were first realizing how effective the treatments could be, said Hodi, who conducted the first clinical trials with the drugs.
When Carter was treated in 2015, Hodi said, it was still unclear whether patients whose cancer had spread to the brain could benefit. The fear was that the drugs would cause brain inflammation and worsen patients’ conditions while doing nothing to their tumors.
Research by Hodi and others has since shown that, like Carter, many patients with brain metastases from melanoma can benefit from checkpoint therapy. But today, Hodi said, he would give most patients both pembrolizumab and the drug approved earlier called ipilimumab.
World leaders greet the Centenarian:
Fellow Democrat and incumbent President Joe Biden has a simple message for Carter:
Happy 100th Birthday, President Carter.
To put it simply: I admire you so darn much. pic.twitter.com/09DUDUlz9d
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 1, 2024
Fellow Democrat and equally former President Barack Obama greets Carter in a tweet via his verified X handle:
Happy 100th birthday, President Carter! Thank you for your friendship, your fundamental decency, and your incredible acts of service through the @CarterCenter. Michelle and I are grateful for all you’ve done for this country. pic.twitter.com/9TcYABwUO3
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 1, 2024
Former FLOTUS/Ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also greets the elder statesman:
Happy 100 to President Carter. From Habitat for Humanity to advancing human rights, you’ve set an example for all of us for how to do the most good. pic.twitter.com/WPGZG5nQHo
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 1, 2024
