ESPN anchor Jay Harris announces cancer diagnosis

NEW YORK -- ESPN "SportsCenter" anchor Jay Harris is battling prostate cancer, he announced Thursday on "Good Morning America."

"My doctor is quite optimistic," Harris said of his prognosis. "Per my last scan, nothing has spread, so once we take out the prostate, hopefully that will be it. That's the goal."

Harris said he plans to undergo surgery on June 10, and then will take time off from "SportsCenter" to recover.

"[I] will be away from 'SportsCenter' for about a month to recover and then I'm coming back better than ever," said Harris, who joined ESPN in 2003.

Harris said he has received an outpouring support from his ESPN colleagues, as well as his family and friends, many of whom have shared with Harris a personal connection to prostate cancer.

In Harris's own family, he said his dad battled prostate cancer, as well as other relatives.

"We all need to talk about these things because we all have them in our families," Harris said of his diagnosis. "By not talking about them, we just, really, I hate to be morbid, but we sentence ourselves to death by not talking."

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second-leading cause of cancer death among men in the U.S., according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Center.

The five-year relative survival rate from prostate cancer, meaning the percentage of people alive five years after diagnosis, is roughly 98%, the NIH says.

Prostate cancer in general usually grows very slowly. While finding and treating it before symptoms occur may not improve men's health or help them live longer it is generally a more treatable type of cancer, even when it has spread.

Prostate cancer can be screened for with a blood test called Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA). The goal of screening is to catch cancer before symptoms present and can be done during medical check-ups.

After a high PSA is detected, a doctor may call for a biopsy.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), which helps establish standards for screening tests, says the decision to screen people aged 55-69 for prostate cancer should be a choice between the individual and their healthcare provider.

ABC News' Eric Strauss and Dr. Camry Kelly, Dr. Ashley Yoo contributed to this report.

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