Al Roker Nearly Missed Doctor’s Appointment That Revealed Prostate Cancer

Television host Al Roker revealed that he nearly postponed his annual physical that led to discovering his prostate cancer.

On Tuesday, the 66-year-old said that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic nearly stopped him from attending his annual checkup. However, the decision to go likely saved his life.

“Listen, I was going to put off my annual checkup, but I decided back in September, let me just get this done,” Roker said. “And if I hadn’t, doctors would not have detected the prostate cancer, which was very aggressive.”

The “Today” star encourages people to take their health seriously and refrain from putting off medical checkups.

“My outlook and outcome might have been completely different, so I cannot stress enough to people, go out there and get your checkup, make sure you get checked,” Roker told his “Today” co-host, Craig Melvin.

Prostate cancer affects one in nine men, which is why Roker wanted to share his health battles publicly back in November when he revealed his cancer diagnosis on-air. The following week, he underwent surgery to remove his prostate. At the time, Roker said that the cancer was aggressive, despite detecting it early.

Roker’s doctor found the disease when he noticed that Roker had an “elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA)” in his lab results. An MRI and biopsy followed that confirmed cancer on September 29th.

Following his surgery to remove the prostate, Roker announced that there was no evidence of cancer.