Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Discusses Living With CML

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, retired NBA player for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers, discusses his experience with chronic myeloid leukemia‎ (CML) at the 20th Annual International Congress on Hematologic Malignancies: Focus on Leukemias, Lymphomas and Myeloma, held March 18, 2016.

While anyone is at risk for CML and other types of leukemia, it is a disease that is possible to live with and to overcome thanks to novel treatments that are now available, says Abdul-Jabbar. It important that patients with CML follow their doctors’ instructions closely, and keep up with all of their medications.

Drugs that target specific genetic abnormalities like nilotinib (Tasigna) and imatinib mesylate (Gleevec), which both treat Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) CML, are taking the right approach, says Abdul-Jabbar. These types of agents have promise across multiple tumor types, he says.

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