Mihajlovic, what is acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia, the disease that took Sinisa Mihajlovic away, is one of the most aggressive blood cancers known, with which – all too often – it is difficult to fight. According to the Janssen Institute, over 3,000 cases of acute myeloid leukemia are discovered in Italy each year, with a small disparity in favor of men. In people between the ages of 25 and 64, only 40% of patients survive 5 years after diagnosis. A number that is reduced by up to 5% in the case of the over 65s.

the illness

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The main characteristic of leukaemias, and of this one in particular, is the presence of cancerous (diseased) cells in the blood and bone marrow. Under normal conditions, the bone marrow produces immature cells, called stem cells, from which different types of blood cells originate, each of which performs a specific function in the body. To understand each other, they are the ones that are studied in school: white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. Those affected by acute myeloid leukemia must therefore deal with the fact that some of these immature cells, called blasts, go crazy and generate so-called granulocytes, (a type of white blood cell) excessively.

CHEMO AND MARROW TRANSPLANTATION

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Diagnosing the disease is not easy. The symptoms – tiredness, fever, joint pain – are too often underestimated, mistaken for a simple flu. Just like in the case of Mihajlovic, the treatment of the disease is anything but trivial. The former Inter player, like many other AML patients, had to undergo several cycles of chemotherapy. This is used to eliminate as many blasts as possible in the blood and bone marrow until the disease is gone. When this therapy is not successful, then we proceed with a bone marrow transplant, just like Sinisa did in October 2019.

the recurrence

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One of the characteristics of acute myeloid leukemia, however, is that it comes back. As reported by the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, “about 50%” of people who receive a donor bone marrow transplant develop a tumor recurrence”. Just like what happened to Mihajlovic when, in March 2022, he discovered that his illness had returned and had restarted treatment.