Dan Abrams goes public with cancer

NEW YORK, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- NBC News Chief Legal Correspondent Dan Abrams has decided to make public his private battle with testicular cancer.

"I want to be able to help," Abrams, 38, told the New York Daily News of his decision to publicize his July 2003 diagnosis and ensuing surgery

"My first reaction was disbelief," he said. "I was stunned, then I was frightened. And then I was determined to just do what I had to do to put it behind me."

Doctors removed a tumor from his testicles and lymph nodes from his abdomen. He did not have to undergo chemotherapy.

Abrams missed only 3 1/2 weeks of work, which includes hosting "The Abrams Report," a nightly news program on MSNBC, and lied to his coworkers about his absence. He decided to go public one year to the day after WPIX-TV sportscaster Sean Kimerling died of testicular cancer.