James Pickens Jr., who stars as Dr. Richard Webber on the television medical drama series “Grey’s Anatomy,” revealed that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Pickens, 71, who has starred in 454 episodes of the series across 22 seasons, talked about his diagnosis in a recent interview with Black Health Matters, adding that his family has a history of prostate cancer.
“It’s not the kind of news anyone wants to hear, but to be honest, prostate cancer has run through my family,” Pickens said. “My father had it. He had a lot of brothers; several of them had it,” he said. “I would have been surprised if I hadn’t gotten it.
“I’ve got a 90-year-old first cousin, who’s still alive, actually; he had it. His son has it. A couple of his brothers had it. No one, as far as I know, has succumbed to it.”
After his doctor referred him to a urologist last year, Pickens opted for a robotic radical prostatectomy instead of radiation treatment.
“We caught it really early, and so they thought that would be the best route to take,” he explained. “I do have a rare variant that you don’t see very often. They wanted to err on the side of caution and keep an eye on it.
“It was rare enough that they wanted to make sure that they were crossing all the T’s and dotting all their I’s. But they hadn’t seen one that was detected as early as mine.”
Pickens’ announcement coincided with his “Grey’s Anatomy” character revealing he has cancer in the final moments of last week’s Season 22 midseason finale.
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