Nathan Congleton/NBC(LOS ANGELES) — Beloved weatherman and Today show personality Al Roker revealed Friday morning that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and would be taking time off to undergo surgery to have the organ removed.
Roker claimed he had no symptoms but that a routine check-up flagged his diagnosis. “It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing,” he commented on air. “Good news is we caught it early. Not great news is that it’s a little aggressive, so I’m going to be taking some time off to take care of this.”
Dr. Vincent Laudone, who will perform the surgery on the 66-year-old Roker at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City next week, told Today, “Fortunately his cancer appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate, but because it’s more aggressive, we wanted to treat it.”
Roker told his audience he intends to chronicle his “journey” battling the disease, with which statistically one in seven African-American men, and one in nine men overall, will be diagnosed in their lifetime. Prostate cancer is very treatable if detected early, Roker noted, advising men to see their doctors even if they don’t have any symptoms.
Roker said he’d “hopefully” be back on the air in two weeks.
By Stephen Iervolino
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