ESPN anchor Jay Harris has revealed that he has prostate cancer.
Harris, the longtime host of SportsCenter, shared his diagnosis during an appearance on Good Morning America on Thursday.
“I was diagnosed with prostate cancer,” Harris told host Michael Strahan. “I’m having surgery on Tuesday, and I’ll be away from SportsCenter for about a month to recover. And then I’m coming back better than ever.”
When Strahan asked what the prognosis was for the cancer, Harris said that his doctors are “quite optimistic.”
“Per my last scan, nothing has spread, so once we take out the prostate, hopefully that will be it. That’s the goal,” the anchor, who first joined ESPN’s SportsCenter in 2003, added.
Harris confessed that once he spoke to his peers about his diagnosis, he realized how little men talk about prostate cancer and illnesses within their families.
“We all need to talk about these things because we all have them in our families,” he said. “By not talking about them, we just, really, I hate to be morbid, we sentence ourselves to death by not talking.”
He then shared that his father and other members of this family had prostate cancer. As a result, Harris “overshares” details about his condition with his 26-year-old son.
Harris reiterated that he wanted to have more open conversations about prostate cancer and raise awareness about it.
“We need to get the message out,” he continued. “People need to know. We need to talk about it. It doesn’t have to be a death sentence. For most folks, it is not.”
He also had “meaningful talks” with his colleagues about his cancer, including Hannah Storm and Brian Custer, who previously had surgery for prostate cancer.
“Their support has been extremely helpful. And my longtime friends at the V Foundation for Cancer Research have given me wonderful guidance,” Harris added.
Before his Good Morning America appearance, he wrote an article for ESPN’s Front Row about his diagnosis in which he revealed that his surgery is scheduled for June 10.
“After my diagnosis, a PET scan showed no spreading. While that was quite the relief, I know that’s not the final word, and they’ll find out more when they go inside,” he wrote. “My hope is that they won’t find anything extra so that I can return to work in a month or so, 100 percent healthy.”
The Cleveland Clinic states that prostate cancer “starts in the prostate gland, part of the male reproductive system,” and “grows slowly.” It’s a serious and common disease, with 13 people in every 100 men developing prostate cancer at some point in their lives.
Most people get diagnosed before the cancer spreads beyond their prostate glands, so treatment can eliminate the condition. Still, approximately 35,770 people in the United States die from prostate cancer each year.
