Al Roker ‘back home’ recovering after surgery for prostate cancer
On social media, Roker expressed his thanks for thoughtful fans and care packages from colleagues.
Veteran Today co-host and weatherman Al Roker has returned to his residence after undergoing surgery to remove his cancerous prostate.
On his Instagram page and Twitter feed, Roker shared a photo of himself and his wife, Deborah Roberts, saying he was “relieved” to have the surgery done and be back home.
He said that he was appreciative of all of the “thoughts and wishes from our viewers and the wonderful care packages from my co-workers.”
The posts also included a photo of Roker giving a thumbs-up while standing next to his 18-year-old son, Nick Roker.
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Roker announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer just one week ago. In his disclosure, Roker declared that his diagnosis is a “good news-bad news kind of thing.”
“Good news is we caught it early,” he said. “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.”
“Fortunately, his cancer appears somewhat limited or confined to the prostate, but because it’s more aggressive, we wanted to treat it,” said Roker’s surgeon, Dr. Vincent Laudone, on the show, “and after discussion regarding all of the different options — surgery, radiation, focal therapy — we settled on removing the prostate.”
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During his public announcement of his diagnosis, Roker addressed the fact that Black men are more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer and to die from the disease.
He noted the problems for African American men ranged from “any number of reasons, from genetics to access to health care, and so we want to make it available, and let people know they got to get checked,” Roker said.
The once heavily-overweight newscaster had gastric bypass surgery in 2002. His doctors have said his regular walking routine and healthy eating habits will shorten Roker’s recovery time.
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