Doctors reveal Italy’s Berlusconi diagnosed with leukaemia
Berlusconi suffers from chronic blood cancer and is currently in intensive care for a lung infection, doctors say.
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has long suffered from chronic blood cancer and is currently in intensive care for a lung infection, his doctors said.
The 86-year-old, whose media empire has made him a billionaire, was rushed to the intensive care unit at Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital on Wednesday, raising concerns about his increasingly fragile health.
In their initial statement about his condition, Drs Alberto Zangrillo and Fabio Ciceri revealed on Thursday that Berlusconi had been diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CML) in the past. They didn’t say when the cancer was first diagnosed, just that it wasn’t acute.
“Silvio Berlusconi is currently in intensive care for treatment of a lung infection,” they said, adding that the illness was linked to the cancer.
CML affects white blood cells and in most cases can’t be cured, doctors say. About 70 percent of men will live at least five years after their diagnosis, while younger adults tend to have a better outlook, according to advice from the UK’s National Health Service to patients.
Three of Berlusconi’s five children, daughter Marina and sons Luigi and Pier Silvio, were seen at the hospital on Thursday. His good friend and business partner Fedele Confalonieri also came to visit.
“We are more optimistic,” Confalonieri told reporters. “Today [he looks] much better than yesterday.”
Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party is part of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing coalition, but the former prime minister plays no role in her government.
“We all want to be optimistic and we hope that the lion will return soon to take over the leadership of the party,” Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani told RAI state television. “He is our political leader, and of course he never gives up.”
Berlusconi, who made his fortune from commercial television, has suffered repeated bouts of ill health in recent years and was released from the same hospital last week after several days of unspecified treatment.
“I have to say I am very sad,” Tourism Minister Daniela Santanche told Radio 24. “I feel a kind of melancholy, awe and fear because he was a man who was amazing in so many ways.”
Berlusconi was prime minister four times. He resigned for the last time in 2011, weighed down by sleaze and scandal, including his infamous ‘bunga bunga’ parties, as Italy came close to a Greek debt crisis.
But he returned to the Italian Senate after a national election in September. There is no clear successor as leader of his party.
In addition to his lasting influence on Italian politics, Berlusconi’s Fininvest family holding company will retain control of MediaForEurope’s broadcasting activities. His son Pier Silvio Berlusconi is CEO of the company.
Berlusconi built Italy’s largest commercial TV network and gained an international profile as the owner of European football giant AC Milan before entering politics in 1994 when the previous political class was toppled by a corruption scandal.
His health has deteriorated in recent years. He had heart surgery in 2016, has also had prostate cancer and has been hospitalized repeatedly since contracting COVID-19 in 2020.