{"id":385234,"date":"2025-11-17T12:56:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/385234\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T12:56:20","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T12:56:20","slug":"greys-anatomy-star-reveals-prostate-cancer-diagnosis-days-after-his-character-was-given-the-same-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/385234\/","title":{"rendered":"Grey\u2019s Anatomy star reveals prostate cancer diagnosis \u2013 days after his character was given the same news"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Grey\u2019s Anatomy star James Pickens Jr.<\/a> has revealed he was diagnosed with prostate cancer<\/a> \u2014 just days after his character received the same news.<\/p>\n

The actor, 73, opened up about his diagnosis in a recent interview, saying that cancer has affected his family for generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the kind of news anyone wants to hear, but to be honest, prostate cancer has run through my family. My father had it,\u201d Pickens told Black Men\u2019s Health. \u201c<\/a>He had a lot of brothers; several of them had it. I would have been surprised if I hadn\u2019t gotten it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a 90-year-old first cousin, who\u2019s 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,” the actor added.<\/p>\n

In a public service announcement put out by the outlet, Pickens encouraged viewers to get cancer screenings<\/a>. He said his own cancer testing, which he\u2019s been consistent about over the years because of his family\u2019s history, helped detect it early.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

James Pickens Jr.\u2019s character, Dr. Richard Webber, revealed his cancer diagnosis to Dr. Miranda Bailey, played by Chandra Wilson, on Grey\u2019s Anatomy\u2019s midseason finale of season 22 (Disney)<\/p>\n

\u201cI started getting my annual physical 34 years ago. And I started my PSA testing when I was 41; I\u2019m 73 now. My urologist said. \u2018Because you were so diligent in that piece of your health, it was to your advantage. We were able to catch it so early because you were being tested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickens has starred on Grey\u2019s Anatomy since the medical drama debuted in 2005. He plays Dr. Richard Webber, who shared his cancer diagnosis in the shocking fall finale<\/a> last week. <\/p>\n

But while the doctor\u2019s fate was left up in the air in the final moments of season 22 midseason finale\u2019s cliffhanger<\/a> on Thursday, Pickens has spoken about the decision he made to treat his prostate cancer. The actor said during his annual physical last year, his prostate-specific antigen levels were normal. But when he went back for an appointment in January, they found the numbers had gone up, bringing him to a urologist.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe urologist looked at him and said, \u2018Yeah, there\u2019s something here. Let\u2019s do an MRI,\u2019 which we did, and it revealed, as he called it, something suspicious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

James Pickens Jr. had a prostatectomy to treat his prostate cancer (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A scheduled biopsy revealed the tumor. However, Pickens said a PET scan showed them the cancer had not spread and stayed in one area of the prostate. The actor underwent a prostatectomy to treat the cancer, meaning his prostate gland was removed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe caught it really early, and so they thought that would be the best route to take. I do have a rare variant that you don\u2019t see very often. They wanted to err on the side of caution and keep an eye on it,\u201d he told the outlet. \u201cIt was rare enough that they wanted to make sure that they were crossing all the T\u2019s and dotting all their I\u2019s. But they hadn\u2019t seen one that was detected as early as mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickens said he shared his diagnosis to break the stigma around men speaking out about their health, saying one in eight men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor Black men, the risk is even higher.<\/a> Fortunately, prostate cancer is highly treatable, but early detection is the key, and sometimes there are no noticeable symptoms,\u201d Pickens said in the video.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cToday, I am living proof that early detection works. If you\u2019re Black, or prostate cancer runs in your family, talk to your doctor about getting screened starting at age 40.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":385235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-385234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115565153137078190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}