Al Roker, co-host and weatherman of the morning Today show on NBC, revealed that he will be undergoing surgery to treat prostate cancer. As he told his fellow co-hosts: “It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing. 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.”
Roker’s cancer was diagnosed when he was found to have an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) during a routine physical exam. A repeat test was also high, which led to an MRI of the prostate that showed a mass. Biopsy of the mass confirmed the diagnosis.
Roker’s surgeon, Vincent Laudone, MD, told the “Today” audience: “Fortunately his cancer appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate, but because it’s more aggressive, we wanted to treat it, and after a discussion regarding all of the different options — surgery, radiation, focal therapy — we settled on removing the prostate.”
See “Al Roker’s Prostate Cancer: — Morning show stalwart’s diagnosis highlights discrepancies for Black men” by Michele R. Berman, MD, and Mark S. Boguski, MD, PhD on the MedPage Today website (November 10, 2020)
