Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has leukemia

Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on Tuesday morning revealed that he has cancer, but the long-term prognosis is good.

Abdul-Jabbar, 62, has announced nearly a year after the diagnosis of chronic myeloid leukemia, a cancer of blood and bone marrow, studies have shown that they will be monitored and treated with drugs.

According to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, for 1999-2005 the survival rate five years, 53.3 percent of CML.

CML patients have so-called "Philadelphia chromosome (Ph chromosome).

Chromosomes are structures in cells that contain genes. Each cell has a nucleus with chromosomes. Genes give instructions to cells.

The Ph chromosome occurs when a piece of chromosome 22 breaks and joins the end of chromosome 9th A piece of chromosome 9 breaks off and joins the end of Chromosome 22 The break on chromosome 9 contains a gene called Abl. The break on chromosome 22 contains a gene called BCR. The BCR-ABL genes and combine to make the gene that causes CML, called Bcr-Abl gene in cancer therapy.

Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA all-time leading scorer. He played 14 of his 20 seasons with the Lakers before retiring in 1989. He currently serves as an assistant in the team, which mainly deals with the young center Andrew Bynum and the Lakers infield.

His role this season has been less than Bynum has his game and the Memphis Grizzlies have been applied recently developed and was given permission to the service in a similar position in his team talk.