Jimmy Carter announces he is cancer-free, causing church congregation in Georgia to break into applause

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says his most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots or any new ones.Reuters

Amid all the bad news circulating in today's media, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter gets to share at least one piece of good news: He is now cancer-free.

According to CNN, Carter made the announcement in front of the Sunday School class he was teaching at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.

"My most recent MRI brain scan did not reveal any signs of the original cancer spots nor any new ones. I will continue to receive regular three-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab," Carter said in a statement.

Stephanie Wynn, a 12-year member of the congregation, confirmed Carter's statement. She said their whole congregation broke into applause when the 91-year-old Christian preacher announced his improved health status.

Carter first found out that he had four spots of cancer cells spread to his brain earlier this year. In August, he was quoted as saying that his fate "is in the hands of God, whom I worship."

But just three days after disclosing that he had cancer, Carter resumed his Sunday school duties. The only difference was the church attendance, which ballooned in size since people flocked to his church just to see him preach.

"Well, I always explain to the class where I've been the past couple of weeks," he had told the class back then. "I missed two lessons because toward the end of May (and) first of June it was found that I had cancer, so they removed part of my liver. But then we had another MRI and it showed I have four places in my brain."

Everything went uphill after that. In November, Carter's doctors from the Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta said his treatment had gone well, and they saw no more signs of the cancerous cells.