Let's find out what myeloid leukemia is, the disease that affected the journalist Alfonso Signorini
Alfonso Signorini has returned to talk about myeloid leukemia, a disease that changed his life.
Leukemia is a cancer of the blood that affects the bone marrow, the lymphatic system and other tissues. Depending on the rate of progression, the disease may be chronic or acute. The term leukemia derives from leucos, which in Greek means white. The pathology in fact originates precisely from the white blood cells, the cells that have the task of combating infections in the body. In patients affected by leukemia, the bone marrow tends to produce a particularly large number of white blood cells that do not work properly, have genetic mutations, but above all spread in the blood, hindering the correct functioning of the other cells.
To date the causes of this pathology that usually affects adults are not yet known. The main symptoms are fever, frequent fatigue, but above all the tendency to develop bruising and frequent bleeding. The therapy to be followed in the case of myeloid leukemia is closely linked to the patient's age, but it is usually treated through different cycles of chemotherapy.
It was 2014 when Signorini, at the time leading the Kalispera program, received a terrible diagnosis. Alfonso Signorini was interviewing Sabrina Ferilli and Christian De Sica when he started to sweat and feel bad. "At midnight I had 40 of fever – he told La Verità -. I finished the evening and went to the San Raffaele emergency room. They took my exams, gave me an antipyretic, and sent me home. The next morning, Christmas Eve, they called me: "You have a myeloid leukemia, don't move, see you on the 27th to start treatment".
Today Alfonso Signorini is cured, but he does not forget that period of his life. "The illness was a frontal accident – he explained – but I came to consider it a blessing, a gift. Leukemia made me understand the value of things ".
