Most Experts Not Surprised by Carter's Status
- 8 years ago
Former President Jimmy Carter's announcement that he is free of metastatic melanoma surprised many people but, not most melanoma specialists contacted by MedPage Today .
With the evolution of modern radiation therapy techniques and targeted drugs, more patients with metastatic melanoma achieve complete and partial remissions, including remission of small brain metastases like the ones identified during the evaluation and initial treatment of Carter.
"If I had a patient of my own with four small brain mets undergoing [stereotactic radiation therapy], I would tell them that I fully expected the radiation to take care of those four lesions," said Vernon K. Sondak, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.
Carter also is being treated with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab , which is known to stimulate immune cells that then migrate to tumor sites to eradicate the lesions, noted Anna Pavlick, DO , of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.
With the evolution of modern radiation therapy techniques and targeted drugs, more patients with metastatic melanoma achieve complete and partial remissions, including remission of small brain metastases like the ones identified during the evaluation and initial treatment of Carter.
"If I had a patient of my own with four small brain mets undergoing [stereotactic radiation therapy], I would tell them that I fully expected the radiation to take care of those four lesions," said Vernon K. Sondak, MD, of Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.
Carter also is being treated with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab , which is known to stimulate immune cells that then migrate to tumor sites to eradicate the lesions, noted Anna Pavlick, DO , of NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City.