NBC News legend Tom Brokaw revealed Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with cancer.
The 74-year-old former "NBC Nightly News" anchor said that he has multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow. NBC News said that he was given the diagnosis last August.
In a note to NBC staffers obtained by HuffPost, NBC News president Deborah Turness and NBCUniversal News Group chairman Pat Fili-Krushel said that Brokaw, who has worked at the network since 1966, had been given an optimistic prognosis by his doctors.
"We all love Tom dearly and so we are pleased to let you know that he and his physicians are very encouraged with the progress he is making," they wrote.
Brokaw has continued to work consistently throughout his treatment, and Turness and Fili-Krushel said that work would continue. He issued a statement of his own soon after, calling himself "the luckiest guy I know."
Brokaw was honored with the Ambassador of Hope Award from the University of Nebraska Medical Center's Eppley Cancer Center in 2006 for his contributions to the fight against cancer. At that time, he said, "I don't know any family in America who has not had some kind of really unsettling and ultimately difficult experience with cancer."
Here is Brokaw's full statement:
“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.
I remain the luckiest guy I know.
I am very grateful for the interest in my condition but I also hope everyone understands I wish to keep this a private matter."