Al Rocker Prostate Cancer

A beloved TODAY co-host is announcing some shocking news.

Source: NBC / Getty

Al Roker, 66, announced this morning that he’s battling prostate cancer and will be undergoing surgery to have his prostate removed. The weatherman whose long championed the importance of prostate health,  emphasized that he wanted to share the news publicly to raise awareness in particular for Black men. 1 in 7 African American men and 1 in 9 men overall, will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.

“It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing,” Al said about his diagnosis. “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),” he added.

Al’s doctor who will remove his prostate at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City also appeared on TODAY and spoke on the decision to have Al undergo surgery.

“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,” said Dr. Vincent Laudone.

Al previously underwent a live prostate exam on TODAY in 2013 and in 2019 he worked alongside TODAY’s Craig Melvin and the New Jersey Devils for a public service announcement. He hopes sharing his diagnosis will encourage black men to get the proper checkups and screenings to stop the cancer that is very treatable if detected early.

We wish him all the best! Get well soon, Al!