Edwina Bartholomew broke down on Friday’s episode of Sunrise, making the tearful admission that she has been diagnosed with cancer.
Edwina, 44, told her breakfast TV audience she had been diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia, or CML.
‘It is a really good kind,’ said the mother-of-two. ‘It can be treated with a daily tablet. If I can take care of myself, I will be completely fine,’ she said of the cancer.
According to the Leukaemia Foundation, Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia is a rare type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.
CML causes the bone marrow to produce too many white blood cells called granulocytes.
These cells, which are also referred to as ‘leukaemic blasts’, crowd the bone marrow and interfere with the production of normal blood cells.
The cells also ‘spill out’ of the bone marrow and circulate through the body via the bloodstream.
Approximately 330 Australians are diagnosed with CML each year, accounting for just 0.03 per cent of all cancers diagnosed.
Edwina Bartholomew broke down on Friday’s episode of Sunrise, making the tearful admission that she has been diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML)
The foundation states CML can occur at any age , but is much more common in people over the age of 40, who account for almost 70 per cent of all diagnoses.
It also occurs more frequently in men than women.
CML typically develops gradually in its early stages, progressing slowly across three phases: chronic, accelerated, and blast, over weeks or months.
According to the Leukaemia Foundation , CML, is a rare type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow
Approximately 330 Australians are diagnosed with CML each year, accounting for just 0.03 per cent of all cancers diagnosed
More than 90 per cent of people are diagnosed in the early chronic phase and blood counts remain relatively stable and the proportion of blast cells in the blood and bone marrow is typically five per cent or less.
Most people display few, if any, troubling symptoms of their disease in the chronic phase.
The foundation stated that CML progresses from a relatively stable disease to a more rapidly progressing one in just five percent of cases. In this accelerated phase, a proportion of blast cells in the bone marrow and blood may increase.
If left untreated, accelerated phase CML can develop into blast phase CML, however, there is, generally speaking, less than a 5 per cent risk that it will transform into a rapidly progressing disease that resembles acute leukaemia.
The risk is lowered to just one percent for patients who have a positive response to drug therapy.
About two-thirds of blast phase CML cases transform into a disease resembling Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, with the remainder transforming into one resembling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.
While treatment is largely dependent on the phase of the disease, age and health, most patients will be treated for CML with drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs).
These drugs block the activity of an enzyme called bcr-abl which prevents the growth and proliferation of these leukaemic cells.
The longtime Seven star shares children Molly, four, and Thomas, two, with her husband of six years Neil Varcoe
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