Former US President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday said that recent liver surgery had shown he has cancer.

The 39th president, now aged 90, underwent an operation deemed successful earlier this month, to remove a "small mass."

"That procedure revealed that I have cancer that now is in other parts of my body," he said in a brief written statement Wednesday.

"I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment."

"A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week," said the Nobel Peace Prize winner, whose two sisters, brother and father all died from pancreatic cancer.

The Georgia native will be treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.