Jimmy Carter Diagnosed With Liver Cancer

Former president Jimmy Carter, 90, was diagnosed with liver cancer after undergoing surgery earlier this month. (Photo: Corbis/Bebeto Matthews)

Former president Jimmy Carter has been diagnosed with liver cancer, he announced today (Aug. 12):

Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body. I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare. A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week.

Carter, 90, has a family history of cancer, with his father and three siblings dying from pancreatic cancer and his mother also being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Carter’s cancer has spread to other parts of his body, which is actually quite common with liver cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. The disease affects roughly 35,000 Americans each year, and is more common in men than in women (around 1 in 81 men are diagnosed with liver cancer, while a woman’s risk is closer to 1 in 181). The average age of diagnosis is 63, and nearly all patients with liver cancer are over the age of 45.

The five-year survival rate for localized liver cancer — meaning the cancer is contained to the liver, and hasn’t spread (or metastasized) elsewhere — is 28 percent. However, the five-year survival rate for metastasized liver cancer is much lower — 7 percent, according to the American Cancer Society.

Chronic, viral hepatitis is the leading risk factor for liver cancer, while alcohol abuse that’s led to liver cirrhosis can also increase a person’s risk. While these risk factors provide clues into the development of liver cancer, its causes are still unknown.

Signs of liver cancer often don’t appear until late stages, making it particularly difficult to diagnose. Weight loss, nausea, an enlarged liver and/or spleen, and abdominal pain are all possible symptoms. A doctor can perform imaging or lab tests to diagnose the cancer.

Liver cancer is most often treated with surgery; one of the challenges of this kind of surgery is leaving enough of the organ to function, while still removing the tumor, according to the MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. Radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and proton therapy are also treatment options.

Read This Next: 10 Common Symptoms That Could Be Cancer