Al Roker has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.- The longtime "Today" show weatherman and co-host announced the news on Friday's show.
- The 66-year-old co-host noted that his cancer was "a little aggressive" and will be undergoing surgery next week in New York City.
- Roker said a major reason why he wanted to go public with the news is to shed light on the high number of men who are diagnosed in their lives, especially Black men.
Longtime "Today" show weatherman and co-host Al Roker announced on Friday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Roker, 66, said that he decided to go public with his diagnosis to shed light on the high number of men who are diagnosed, especially Black men. Roker stated on "Today" that one in seven Black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime with one in nine men overall.
"Fortunately his cancer appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate, but because it's more aggressive, we wanted to treat it," Dr. Vincent Laudone, who will preform the procedure, said on the show. "We settled on removing the prostate."
Roker will undergo surgery next week at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
"It's a good news-bad news kind of thing," Roker said on the show. "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."
Here is Roker's full announcement on "Today":
—TODAY (@TODAYshow) November 6, 2020