Weatherman and co-host Al Roker announced that he has prostate cancer Friday on “The Today Show.”
Roker, 66, said he will be undergoing surgery to remove his prostate following the diagnosis. He said he’s sharing the news publicly to raise awareness on how many men will be diagnosed with this type of cancer.
“It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing,” Roker 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.”
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The NBC News co-host will have surgery next week in New York City and hopes to be back on the “Today” show in two weeks. His doctor Vincent Laudone added that “appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate,” but because it’s more aggressive they ultimately decided on removing the prostate.
“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,” Roker said during the announcement. (RELATED: Al Roker, Craig Melvin Take Time Away From ‘Today’ Show After Staffer Tests Positive For Coronavirus)
One in seven black men and one in nine men overall will get a prostate cancer diagnosis, according to a “Today” article. Roker hopes that being public about his situation will prompt others to get checked.