NEW YORK — "TODAY" weatherman Al Roker is back at home after getting surgery to remove his prostate.
He posted photos on Instagram Thursday, showing him smiling with his wife and son.
"Relieved to let you all know that my #prostatecancer surgery is done and back home," Roker wrote in the caption. He went on to thank the team at the Josie Robertson Surgery Center at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he had his procedure.
He also thanked "TODAY" viewers and his coworkers for the many well wishes and care packages he received after he announced his diagnosis Nov. 6 during an episode of the NBC morning show. He said he got the diagnosis Sept. 29.
Roker said the the cancer was "a little aggressive," so he would be taking time away from the show to treat it.
"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," he said.
Dr. Vincent Laudone, who performed the surgery, previously said the cancer appeared to be limited to his prostate, but Roker decided to opt for a full prostate removal after learning how aggressive it was and what his other treatment options were.
Laudone told "TODAY" he believed Roker would quickly be back to his old self after the surgery.
"The goal is to get him back to normal activity," Laudone said. "And so the fact that he walks a lot now, that he keeps himself in good shape, that he eats healthy, all of those things are really a plus when it comes to how he will recover after surgery."
Roker's diagnosis started with a routine physical, but when his doctor found elevated levels of an antigen found in the prostate, he got an MRI and a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis.
Roker, 66, encouraged others, especially Black men — who are at a higher risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer — to get regular check-ups to catch health issues early.
