Tom Brokaw’s Cancer Battle to be Subject of ‘Dateline’ Special

Tom Brokaw‘s battle with cancer will be the subject of a Dateline special on NBC this Thursday.

The veteran NBC News anchor will open up, for the first time on primetime television, about being diagnosed with and undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma, a cancer affecting blood cells in the bone marrow. Brokaw announced in December that his disease is in remission.

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The special will take viewers inside Brokaw’s emotional journey, including the setbacks and challenges he faced and conversations about his diagnosis with his wife and children. The former NBC Nightly News anchor will also report on the impact of cancer on the U.S. healthcare system.

Brokaw revealed in February 2014 that he’d been diagnosed with the disease and was already undergoing treatment. Although he said he wanted to keep his health a private matter, he provided updates from time to time, saying in September that the cancer “appear[s] to be gone,” cautioning that it will not be fully eradicated, but can be managed.

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Brokaw also announced in March that he was writing a memoir about his experience dealing with the disease. The book, A Lucky Life, Interrupted: A Memoir of Hope, which will also be part of the Dateline special, will be released on May 12.

In the Dateline special, “Tom Brokaw, a Lucky Life Interrupted,” which airs at 10 p.m. on Thursday, Brokaw says of his diagnosis: “It never occurred to me that I was going to die. I’m going to beat this. No question. I’ll get through this somehow. That’s unrealistic in some ways.”