Former President Carter to undergo cancer treatment

ATLANTA - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter says he has cancer and will undergo treatment at an Atlanta hospital.

Carter announced the diagnosis in a statement from the Carter Center on Wednesday afternoon.

Carter, 90, had surgery earlier this month to remove a small mass in his liver. He says in Wednesday's statement that the surgery revealed the cancer.

A statement released Wednesday by the 39th president reads:

"Recent liver surgery revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body. I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare. A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week."

Carter shared with the New York Times in 2007 about his family's grim history of fighting cancer.

After leaving the White House, he founded the center in Atlanta in 1982 to promote health care, democracy and other issues globally. He is the only president to have come from Georgia.

The Associated Press contributed to this report