Nobel Prize-Winning Medical Research Helped Former President Carter

Former U.S. President and Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter, who turns 94 Monday, was diagnosed in 2015 with the skin cancer melanoma, which had spread to his brain. He was treated with a drug inspired by the research of new Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo.

John Amis / Associated Press file

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to two researchers from the United States and Japan for advances in discovering how the body’s immune system can fight off the scourge of cancer.

The research honored with Monday’s Nobel Prize in medicine helped at least one very famous patient: Jimmy Carter.

The former U.S. president and Georgia governor, who also celebrates his 94th birthday Monday, was diagnosed in 2015 with the skin cancer melanoma, which had spread to his brain. He was treated with a drug inspired by the research of new Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo, and Carter announced in 2016 that he no longer needed treatment.