Al Roker revealed he has received a prostate cancer diagnosis.

Roker made the statement on Friday’s episode of Today, saying that his diagnosis was, thankfully, made early.

“It’s a good news-bad news kind of thing,” he said. “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 wanted to talk about his diagnosis to highlight how one in seven Black men, as well as one in nine men in general, will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Dr. Carol Brown said during Roker’s admission that Black men are 50 percent more likely to get prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from the illness than white men.

“The problem for African American men is that any number of reasons from genetics to access to health care [increases prostate cancer risk], and so we want to make it available and let people know they got to get checked,”

Roker will undergo surgery to remove his prostate next week at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Even though Roker said he will “just wait and see,” he hopes that “in about two weeks, I’ll be back” to host Today.

 

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