Newsman Tom Brokaw reveals he has cancer
- Retired NBC %27Nightly News%27 anchor diagnosed with multiple myeloma
- He continues contributing to the network
- %22I remain the luckiest guy I know%2C%22 Brokaw says
Longtime newsman Tom Brokaw Tuesday revealed that he has cancer.
Brokaw, 74, an NBC News special correspondent and former Nightly News anchor, was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic in August with multiple myeloma, a cancer that affects blood cells in the bone marrow. His doctors are encouraged with the progress he is making and Brokaw has continued his work for the network, including contributions to NBC's Winter Olympics coverage in Sochi.
"With the exceptional support of my family, medical team and friends, I am very optimistic about the future and look forward to continuing my life, my work and adventures still to come," he said in a statement Tuesday. "I remain the luckiest guy I know."
He continued: "I am very grateful for the interest in my condition but I also hope everyone understands I wish to keep this a private matter."
During his treatment, Brokaw has continued to work on NBC News projects, including a two-hour documentary on the assassination of JFK and appearances on Today, Nightly News with Brian Williams, Meet the Press and MSNBC.
The South Dakota native, who spent some time as a radio reporter in college, has been with NBC News for his entire television journalistic career, including a 22-year run as anchor of the network's flagship news broadcast, NBC Nightly News, that ended in 2004.
Brokaw's NBC News career began in 1966 in the Los Angeles bureau, where he covered Ronald Reagan's first run for public office, the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 presidential campaign.
He served as the network's White House correspondent during the Watergate era in the 1970s, backing up John Chancellor as anchor of Nightly News, and hosted NBC's popular morning show, Today, in New York from 1976-1982.
Among the specials he produced for the network was 2001's The Greatest Generation Speaks based on his best-selling book about those who fought in World War II, The Greatest Generation.
After he left the Nightly News anchor chair, Brokaw took over as moderator of NBC's newsmaker interview show, Meet the Press, in 2008 after the death of his friend, Tim Russert.
Brokaw scored the first interview with Mikhail Gorbachev and had the first network report on human rights abuses in Tibet, along with an interview with the Dalai Lama. He was the only American network anchor reporting from Berlin the day the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.
He and wife Meredith have been married since 1962 and have three daughters.
A year ago, Brokaw shared news that they welcomed their first grandson. Daughter Sarah, a licensed therapist and author, gave birth to Archer Thomas Merritt Brokaw. Little Archer wasn't the first Brokaw grandchild. At the time, he joined six granddaughters.
Contributing: Ann Oldenburg and Lorena Blas