Longtime ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Star James Pickens Jr. Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Grey’s Anatomy star James Pickens Jr. has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The 71-year-old actor, who has starred as Dr. Richard Webber across all 22 seasons of the ABC medical drama, shared his diagnosis in a recent interview with Black Health Matters, revealing that he has a family history of the disease.

“It’s not the kind of news anyone wants to hear, but to be honest, prostate cancer has run through my family,” Pickens told the outlet. “My father had it. He had a lot of brothers; several of them had it. 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,” he went on. “His son has it. A couple of his brothers had it. No one, as far as I know, has succumbed to it.”

It’s because of Pickens’ diligence regarding his health that doctors detected his cancer so early, as he began getting PSA (prostate-specific antigen) testing done when he was 41 years old.

His recent PSA test prompted the actor’s doctor to send him for an MRI, which revealed “something suspicious” on Pickens’ prostate. A biopsy confirmed that Pickens had developed a tumor, but a PET scan showed that the cancer had not spread and had been isolated to one part of the prostate.

“My urologist said. ‘Because you were so diligent in that piece of your health, it was to your advantage,’” Pickens recalled. “‘We were able to catch it so early because you were being tested.’”

The Grey’s Anatomy mainstay was given the choice of undergoing radiation or a radical prostatectomy, and he decided to go with the laparoscopic surgery option.

“We caught it really early, and so they thought that would be the best route to take,” Pickens 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.”

Picken’s daughter, actress Gavyn Pickens, updated fans on X (formerly Twitter) Saturday, revealing that her father was “well” and had already undergone a successful surgery. “Now it’s just about monitoring, but he is doing great!” she wrote.

Pickens told Black Health Matters that he hopes to remove the stigma surrounding men, especially Black men, talking about their health and prostate cancer.