Basketball Great Kareem Abdul Jabbar Diagnosed with a Form of Blood Cancer

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar says he has been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a form of blood cancer. He said he received the diagnosis last December. He said that apart from having to see his doctor and checking his blood levels on a regular basis, having CML hasn't significantly affected his life. He said, in an interview with CNN, that he is going public now to educate people about the disease.

Raising awareness about cancer has been one of his causes for quite some time. He said that cancer has been a prominent part of his life. His grandfather and his uncle died from colorectal cancer, while his father almost died from the cancer as well. He said has the gene for colorectal cancer, which led him to get involved in a colorectal cancer awareness campaign in the African-American community. He's also participated in an NBA-sponsored prostate cancer awareness campaign.

But now he's a cancer patient himself. He said he first realized something was wrong when he began having hot flashes and sweats, something he admits wasn't normal, "even for someone my age." After seeing his physician, blood work showed he had a "white blood cell count that was sky-high." The National Cancer Institute describes CML as a "slowly progressing disease in which too many white blood cells are made in the bone marrow."

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), the average person's chance of getting CML is less than 1 in 500. The cancer society says CML is slightly more common in men than women, and it accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of all leukemias or blood cancers. The ACS estimates just over 5,000 people will be diagnosed with CML this year, and that 470 will die from it. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society estimates the five-year survival rate for CML of 44.4 percent. Source: CNN

Kareem Abdul Jabbar was correct in stating that the diagnosis was not a death sentence. He can do a lot of good by raising public awareness of the disease and can save lives by educating the public on what to look for and the importance of taking one's medicine and seeing the doctor regularly.