Al Roker revealed some personal news on Friday.
The 66-year-old has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and will undergo surgery to have his prostate removed.
"It's a good news-bad news kind of thing," Al said.
"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."
"We'll just wait and see, and hopefully in about two weeks, I'll be back (on TODAY)," Al said on the show.
The surgery will be carried out in New York City by Dr. Vincent Laudone, who opened up about the meteorologist's prognosis.
"Fortunately his cancer appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate, but because it's more aggressive, we wanted to treat it, and after discussion regarding all of the different options — surgery, radiation, focal therapy — we settled on removing the prostate," Laudone said on the show.
Al is sharing his story because he wants to help others at risk, particularly Black men, to make sure they visit their doctor to get proper checkups.
"The problem for African American men is that any number of reasons from genetics to access to health care, and so we want to make it available and let people know they got to get checked," Al said.
The Prostate Cancer Foundation recommends African American men talk to their doctor about being screened for prostate cancer at age 40.
Dr. Carol Brown, a cancer surgeon at Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center, appeared on the show and said that African American men are 50% more likely to get prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it than white men in the United States.
"Another important message to know is that there are no symptoms with early prostate cancer," Brown said.
"So screening saves lives, and African American men need to get screened and should get screened usually starting at age 40."
Roker has been a part of the Today family since 1990, when he occasionally filled in for Willard Scott and Bryant Gumbel.
In 1996, he was promoted to the regular weekday weather slot following Scott’s retirement.
Have a look at the announcement below.
Our friend and colleague @AlRoker reveals that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. pic.twitter.com/hnAUX4xfX3
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 6, 2020
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