Al Roker Reveals Why He's So Open About His Prostate Cancer Journey

In an appearance on The Dr. Oz Show, Al Roker opened up about being diagnosed with prostate cancer and why he's not afraid to speak publicly about it.

By Allison Crist Feb 26, 2021 7:24 PMTags
Watch: Al Roker Thanks Fans After Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Raising awareness. 

Al Roker isn't afraid to publicly speak about his health battles—especially if doing so encourages others to keep in tune with their own health.

That's the philosophy the TODAY weatherman and co-host has embraced since November when he first revealed he'd been diagnosed with prostate cancer following a routine checkup. "It's a good news-bad news kind of thing," Roker said at the time. "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."

Now that he's more familiar with the disease, Roker is eager to help those suffering, along with the men who might not be aware of the dangers of prostate cancer.

As he explained on the Friday, February 26 episode of The Dr. Oz Show, "It's one of these things that you can do it in private and you can just kind of brush it under the rug and deal with it, or you can try to help folks."

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"For a lot of guys, I think we tend to somewhat put our heads in the sand," Roker continued. "And if it's not for our significant others, we would leave it to chance. So I thought, 'Why not do this and get it out there...if one person sees it and goes, 'Maybe I should get checked,' then it was worth it."

Rhea Nall/USTA

Today, Roker is continuing to recover from the five-hour surgery he underwent on Nov. 9 to remove his prostate. 

"I really feel good," he said earlier this month on The Kelly Clarkson Show. "I was very fortunate...I had a great surgeon from Memorial Sloan Kettering, Dr. Vincent Laudone. He feels we got it all."

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Watch more of Al Roker's appearance on The Dr. Oz Show here.

(E! and NBC are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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