Ex-US president Jimmy Carter free of stage 4 melanoma; learn more about his treatment here

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Just almost four months after revealing that his battle against melanoma, which is a type of skin cancer, has taken a turn for the worse with the cancer spreading from his liver to his brain, ex-US president Jimmy Carter has just recently announced that he is cancer-free.

The 39th President of the United States who served the nation between 1977 and 1981 broke the good news before his Sunday school class at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia on Sunday, Dec. 6.

"When I went (for an MRI) this week they didn't find any cancer at all," the 91-year-old Carter announced to the delight of the crowd. "So I have good news. So a lot of people prayed for me, and I appreciate that."

According to the Carter Center, although, there were no traces of cancer left according to his latest MRI, Carter would still undergo the same treatment he had been doing in the past, NBC News reported.

"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 3-week immunotherapy treatments of pembrolizumab," the non-profit organization, which Carter founded after his term in the White House, wrote in a statement on the former president's behalf.

Pembrolizumab is used as a new treatment for melanoma that has already spread or cannot be removed by surgery, according to the Mayo Clinic. It is a monoclonal antibody that changes the immune system to help control the growth of cancer cells.

This immunotherapy drug, which is manufactured by Merck & Co under the brand name Keytruda, was able to successfully reduce the size of the cancer for about 30 percent of patients while 5 percent will experience complete remission, Reuters wrote.

"But people that are in complete remission tend to live significantly longer," said Dr. Marc Ernstoff, director of the melanoma program at the Cleveland Clinic's Taussig Cancer Institute in Ohio. The immunotherapy treatment can lengthen the patient's life expectancy by 1.5 years on the average.

The cancer and its treatment processes have not deterred the former president and Nobel Peace Prize recipient from doing some of the more important things for him. While doing the treatment, he was also able to find time to teach at the Maranatha Baptist Church for the Sunday class. What is even more remarkable is that he also went on in helping build homes with the Habitat for Humanity, which he has been an active participant of since the mid-80s.