Rome (CNN) Silvio Berlusconi, The former Italian prime minister and leader of the Forza Italia party was confirmed to have leukemia, on Thursday.
The San Raffaele Hospital in Milan said in a statement that the cancer suffered by the 86-year-old politician is not acute, adding that he has been carrying the disease for “some time”.
Berlusconi was taken to hospital on Wednesday with breathing problems. After a previous stint in the hospital last week.
“President Silvio Berlusconi is currently hospitalized in intensive care for treatment of pneumonia,” the hospital said in a statement, adding that doctors had now reached a diagnosis of leukemia.
She added that there was a “therapeutic strategy in place” to treat Berlusconi.
the controversial The media mogul served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, most recently between 2008 and 2011, before he was banned from politics for six years after being found guilty of tax fraud.
Berlusconi returned to frontline politics in 2022 when he won a seat in the Italian Senate, representing the northern municipality of Monza.
His spokesperson told CNN he was flown in separately last week for “routine checks.”
In 2021, he was hospitalized for treatment for prolonged Covid-19 symptoms, according to the press office of his Forza Italia party. He also spent time in the hospital the previous year after contracting the coronavirus, and had a number of other health issues, including a 2016 heart surgery to replace an aortic valve.
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