When was Kareem Abdul Jabbar diagnosed with Leukemia?
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is being treated for a rare form of leukemia, and the basketball great said his prognosis is encouraging. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer was diagnosed last December with chronic myeloid leukemia, he told The Associated Press on Monday. The 62-year-old Abdul-Jabbar said his doctor didn’t give any guarantees, but informed him: “You have a very good chance to live your life out and not have to make any drastic changes to your lifestyle.” Abdul-Jabbar is taking an oral medication for the disease. He is a paid spokesman for the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which makes a drug that treats the illness. Citing the way Los Angeles Lakers teammate Magic Johnson brought awareness to HIV, Abdul-Jabbar said he wants to do the same for his form of blood cancer, which can be fatal if left untreated. “I’ve never been a person to share my private life. But I can help save lives,” he said at a midtown Manhattan conference room. “It’s incumbent on someone like me to talk a
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is being treated for a rare form of leukemia, and the basketball great said his prognosis is encouraging. The NBA’s all-time leading scorer was diagnosed last December with chronic myeloid leukemia, he told The Associated Press on Monday. The 62-year-old Abdul-Jabbar said his doctor didn’t give any guarantees, but informed him: “You have a very good chance to live your life out and not have to make any drastic changes to your lifestyle.” Abdul-Jabbar is taking an oral medication for the disease. He is a paid spokesman for the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis, which makes a drug that treats the illness. Citing the way Los Angeles Lakers teammate Magic Johnson brought awareness to HIV, Abdul-Jabbar said he wants to do the same for his form of blood cancer, which can be fatal if left untreated. “I’ve never been a person to share my private life. But I can help save lives,” he said at a midtown Manhattan conference room. “It’s incumbent on someone like me to talk a
Abdul-Jabbar, 62, told “Good Morning America” that he’d been diagnosed in December with Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukemia, or PH+CML, a rare cancer of the blood and bone marrow.”I heard the world ‘leukemia,’ and I thought this was definitely a death sentence,” Abdul-Jabbar said. But, now, his prognosis is good, he said.”If I can do this as I’m told to do it, I can manage this,” he said.Chronic myeloid leukemia affects about 4,500 adults in the United States, with a median age of 67 at diagnosis, according to the CML Alliance.Symptoms can include fatigue, night sweats, weight loss and pain or discomfort on the left side of the abdomen caused by an enlarged spleen. Abdul-Jabbar, now a spokesman for Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp., which partners with the CML Alliance, said he started to notice symptoms shortly before his diagnosis.”I had noticed I was having hot flashes and sweats,” he said. “I’m not going through menopause. So I really needed to know what that’s a
Basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is battling leukemia, and says his prognosis is “very good.” The retired Los Angeles Lakers center — the National Basketball Association’s greatest all-time scorer — was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare blood and bone marrow cancer, last December. “I heard the word ‘leukemia,’ and I thought this was definitely a death sentence,” Abdul-Jabbar said Tuesday on Good Morning America, adding that his first thought was of his friend Bruno Kirby, who died of a different form of leukemia in 2006. Sources: http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/412054_tvgif10.
