Ted Koppel (left) and Leroy Sievers star in the documentary 'Koppel: Living With Cancer', tomorrow at 11:00p.m. on Discovery Channel.

For so many years, cancer was the disease whispered about. Obituaries couched deaths from cancer as "succumbing after a long illness."

Mystery surrounds cancer, despite the fact that it touches most lives. As with any huge topic, it helps to understand it from one person's perspective.

This is what veteran journalist Ted Koppel does in Koppel: Living With Cancer tomorrow on Discovery Channel. The documentary chronicles over 16 months the ups and downs of his friend Leroy Sievers, who has cancer.

At the moment, Sievers is tumour-free, which in the shadowy world where cancer lurks is certainly an up.

"Is he cancer-free?" Koppel says. "I very much doubt it, almost certainly not. To me, the most amazing thing is, we have gone from sitting there at one point, talking in December about 'What do we do with this new round of chemo, which will make my hair fall out and make me sick and give me acne, and at best offers a 20 to 40 per cent of success?' And success is defined as two to four months of life. That's not offering much, and asking an awful lot."

Oddly, the show is not maudlin or overly personal. It is, as expected from Koppel and from Sievers - a TV news producer unaccustomed to being in front of the camera - honest.

Sievers is also a National Public Radio commentator, and his blog, 'My Cancer', can be found at www.npr.org/blogs/mycancer.

"I've lived a good life, a full life," Sievers, 51, says. "It's just too short."

His colon cancer was discovered in 2001. He was clean for four and a half years. Then he started slurring his words, and tumours were found on his brain and lungs.

He's had surgery since, and many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. Recently, his tumours were injected and zapped out of existence. The documentary follows Sievers to doctor appointments and chemotherapy sessions and even shows him on the operating table.

- Jacqueline Cutler, Zap2it