Bryant Gumbel announced on December 8, 2009 that he had a tumor surgically removed due to lung cancer. He revealed this on Live With Regis and Kelly to Kelly Ripa while serving as temporary co-host in place of Regis Philbin. Ripa said that the revelation to her before the show made her "almost faint." He had the tumor removed two months earlier. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/bryant-gumbel-reveals-lung-cancer-battle/story?id=9279746

Gumbel had kept the news private, even from his producers on HBO's Real Sports. "It's nothing to run from," said Gumbel, "it's just that I've not made it public." He added, "They opened up my chest, they took a malignant tumor and they took part of my lung and they took some other goodies. And the pathology on most of the stuff had been benign, but enough aggressive cells had escaped the tumor that it warranted some treatment and I went through that and it's done now." http://abcnews.go.com/Health/bryant-gumbel-reveals-lung-cancer-battle/story?id=9279746

Gumbel served as co-host of NBC's Today Show from 1982 until he left in 1997 to work at CBS. He retired from network television in 2002 but continued hosting Real Sports, which he has hosted since April, 1995. The show has been honored with 20 Sports Emmys and the 2006 duPont-Columbia University award for broadcast journalism. Gumbel's broadcasting career began in 1972 as a sportscaster for KNBC in Los Angeles. From 1975 to 1982 he worked for NBC Sports, serving as host of most of its featured programs and championship events. After taking over the co-host role on Today from Tom Brokaw, he continued to host some sports events including the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul and the PGA Tour in 1990. His 15 years as a host of Today is the longest in the show's history. http://www.hbo.com/realsports/correspondents/bios/bryant_gumbel.html