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A screenshot from Instagram account @Agusyudhoyono.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono delivered shocking news about the health of his wifem Kristiani “Ani” Herawati Yudhoyono. Yudhoyono announced on Wednesday (2/13/2019) that Ani had been diagnosed with leukemia, a type of blood cancer.
“With [great concern], I wish to deliver the news to our friends all over the country that Ibu Ani is suffering from a blood cancer,” Yudhoyono said on Wednesday in Singapore in a video recording. Ani has been receiving treatment at Singapore’s National University Hospital since Saturday (2/2/2019).
“[Ani] has been in intensive care. This is only the beginning and we need to keep her health and physical stamina stable so the medical treatment is effective,” he and eldest son Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono told Kompas over the phone on Wednesday evening. Hospital visits were restricted so Ani would not develop secondary infections.
Many international figures have battled leukemia, most recently Japanese swimming star and 2020 Olympics poster girl, 18-year-old Rikako Ikee. ABC.net reported that the Asian Games 2018 Most Valuable Player (MVP) posted to her Twitter account on Tuesday (2/12/2019): “I was feeling ill and urgently came home from Australia, underwent testing and the diagnosis was leukemia. I still can’t believe it, it\'s a confusing situation.”
Hematologist-oncologist Aru W. Sudoyo of the University of Indonesia’s (UI) medical school explained that cancer occurred when abnormal cells in the body divided uncontrollably. Leukemia is a type of cancer that affects the blood-forming cells in bone marrow.
The Jakarta head of the Indonesian Medical Hematologist-Oncologist Association, Ronald A. Hukom, said that leukemia was caused by the uncontrolled growth of white blood cells (malignant leukocytes).
The 2018 Basic Health Research (Riskesdas) data shows that the prevalence of cancers in Indonesia has increased from 1.4 percent in 2013 to 1.8 percent last year. Globocan, the global cancer statistics database, recorded 348,809 new cancer cases in Indonesia in 2018, including 58,256 cases of breast cancer that comprises 30.9 percent of the 188,321 cancer cases affecting women. It also recorded several thousand cases of blood cancers – lymphoma, leukemia and myeloma.
“There are several types of leukemia, mainly divided in terms of their severity,” said Ronald, who works at the Dharmais Cancer Hospital in Jakarta. The acute forms of leukemia are acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Chronic forms of leukemia are chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML).
The Mayo Clinic website explains that lymphocytic leukemia affects the lymphoid cells (a subtype of white blood cell) that is part of the body’s immune system. Another type of leukemia is myeloblastic leukemia, which affects the myeloid cells that help produce red blood cells, white blood cells and the cells that produce platelets (thrombocyte).
Ronald said that leukemia was an anomalous disorder of the circulatory system and that its symptoms include listlessness and pallor (low hemoglobin/Hb), easy bleeding and hematoma (low thrombocyte) and fever. “Leukemia is diagnosed through testing the bone marrow,” he said.
Risk factors
There are several risks factors in developing leukemia. Cancer.org said that the risk factors for chronic lymphocytic leukemia included age (over 50) and exposure to radiation and chemical agents (pesticides, benzene). “Exposure to electromagnetics and medicines like treatment \ for other types of cancer [cytostasis, radiation] increases the risk level of leukemia,” Ronald said.
UI’s Aru, who also chairs the Indonesian Cancer Foundation, reminded that smoking, including secondhand smoke, could cause leukemia.
Chronic leukemia can be treated orally with good results. Ronald said that 90-95 percent of patients with CGL (chronic granulocytic leukemia) could live for more than 10 years through drug treatment, like Imatinib.
Treatment for acute leukemia, especially in adults, was more difficult and required combined treatment using chemotherapy and several kinds of intravenous drugs in a special ward. Some patients underwent bone marrow or stem cell transplants. Leukemia treatments were still being developed, from simple treatments like oral medicines for chronic leukemia to intrusive treatments like bone marrow transplants. (EVY/APA/E17)
