Al Roker reveals prostate cancer diagnosis; will have surgery

Al Roker, long-time weatherman and co-host on NBC’s “TODAY," show announced Friday that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and will be undergoing surgery to have his prostate removed.

Roker, 66, said he wanted to publicly reveal his diagnosis in order to bring awareness to the number of men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.

“If you detect it early, this is a really treatable disease. And it’s why I wanted to take you along my journey, so we can all learn together how to educate and protect the men in our lives.” he said. “I don’t want people thinking, ‘Oh, poor Al,’ you know, because I’m gonna be OK.”

Dr. Vincent Laudone, the surgeon who will treat Roker, discussed Roker’s diagnosis on the show.

“Fortunately his cancer appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate, but because it’s more aggressive, we wanted to treat it,” he explained.

“We settled on removing the prostate.”

There are more than 200,000 cases diagnosed each year in the United States. It is mainly a disease of older men, though it can affect men in their 20s, 30s and 40s also.

Check back for more on this developing story.

Cox Media Group