Exclaim!

Al Roker Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

The longtime 'Today' host will undergo surgery next week
Al Roker Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis
By Brock Thiessen
Published Nov 06, 2020
Al Roker — a longtime host of NBC's Today — has revealed he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The 66-year-old TV personality made the announcement this morning while on the air during the Today show, explaining that he will undergo surgery next week to have his prostate removed.

While only now going public about the diagnosis, Roker said he first learned of his prostate cancer on September 30. The reason he let viewers know now is so they understood why he would be taking time off for surgery and recovery.

"It's a good news-bad news kind of thing," Roker said on Today this morning. "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."

The doctor who will perform the surgery, Vincent Laudone, also appeared on Today, explaining that "fortunately his cancer appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate, but because it's more aggressive, we wanted to treat it." He also added that while different treatment options were discussed, "we settled on removing the prostate."

You can watch Roker make the announcement below, where you will also find various tweets of support from his colleagues.