WNBC's Pat Battle offers cancer recovery update

"Weekend Today in New York" co-anchor Pat Battle returned to the air Sunday in a taped interview revealing a lengthy battle with breast cancer, she said on the program.

The New Jersey native, and WNBC/4 veteran — who joined the station in 1996 — was diagnosed with cancer in 2010.

Battle, who announced she was leaving the program Jan. 4 for treatment — at the time saying the recurrence "was a little bit more challenging" than her first bout — did not say when she'd return full time to the show, nor did her co-anchor, Gus Rosendale — who interviewed Battle — offer an indication about an expected return date.

Battle has been something of a local TV news dynamo over her long run — indeed, one of local TV news' most prominent reporters, especially during her years with WCBS/2, which she joined in 1989. She was named co-anchor of the popular Ch. 4 weekend program in the early 2000s. In its online bio, WNBC calls her "an energetic and dynamic reporter ... [whose] outgoing personality, her compassion, sincerity and her ability to relate to people has endeared her to viewers" — an assessment few Ch. 4 news watchers would dispute — during her long run on the show. She also launched a segment called "The Good Fight," about people supporting their communities.

Over the past seven months, Battle's long absence from the show has been noted by viewers, and other than a brief Mother's Day message from Battle herself, WNBC did not provide them updates. In her sit-down with Rosendale, the reasons became self-evident: Battle described a particularly challenging form of breast cancer, or "triple negative breast cancer," in her right breast, which she had discovered via a routine mammogram, followed by a particularly difficult treatment.

Her chemotherapy, she said, involved the medication doxorubicin — "in the industry they call it 'the red devil' [because] it's so toxic [that] the side effects literally drained me. And you know me, Gus — I'm going, going, going."

She told Rosendale, "I think what I've determined from the outset is to do this with as much courage, grace and dignity as possible, and be as much me as possible." Battle didn't say when she'd return full time to the program, presumably because "I don't want to come back 60% or 70%, but I'll take 90%. I know I won't be at my best coming back right now."

In a statement to Newsday, David Manney, vice president of News for WNBC/4 and Telemundo 47, said: "Pat’s recovery is our priority. When she is ready to return, we’ll welcome her back with open arms."