Miriam elated over Carter’s cancer cure

MANILA, Philippines – Reports that former US President Jimmy Carter had been cured of brain cancer following treatment have encouraged Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who is also stricken with the disease.

“The positive development in the case of Mr. Carter’s cancer trumps the macabre wishes of my naysayers that I should die before I finish a six-year term as president,” she said. “If Mr. Carter can do it, I, too, can beat cancer to serve the Filipino people.”

Santiago was reacting to Carter’s statement that his latest magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scan “did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones.”

Carter earlier said that his cancer, originally detected in his liver, had spread to his brain.

Santiago was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer  in June 2014. Before filing her certificate of candidacy for president in October, she announced that her cancer has been diagnosed as “stable,” as she continues to undergo treatment.

“My cancer should no longer be a concern in the presidential campaign,” she said in a statement.

“I challenge my opponents and their allies to debate instead on issues of national concern. The cancer that demands our urgent attention is corruption and poverty.”

Carter was given pembrolizumab, one of the first immunotherapy drugs, sold under the brand name Keytruda in the US. These drugs, rather than kill cancer cells, boost the immune system to do the job.

Keytruda was approved for use in melanoma by the US Food and Drug Administration just over a year ago. Trials showed it was slightly more effective and had fewer side effects than ipilimumab, the first breakthrough immunotherapy drug.

Seventy-four percent of patients with advanced melanoma who were given pembrolizumab every two weeks were still alive a year later, trials showed.