In an unfortunate case of life imitating art after its Grey’s Anatomy Following the character’s diagnosis, James Pickens Jr. revealed his recent battle with prostate cancer.
The actor said he was “living proof that early detection works” by teaming up with Black Health Matters (BHM) to urge men to get screened regularly once they turn 40, especially if they are black and have a family history of prostate cancer.
“It’s not the kind of news you want to hear, but to be honest, prostate cancer ran in my family. My father had it. He had a lot of brothers, several of them had it,” he told BHM, also appearing in a PSA. “I would have been surprised if I hadn’t gotten it.”
Pickens Jr. added: “I have a 90-year-old first cousin, who is still alive; he had it. His son had it. Two of his brothers had it. No one, to my knowledge, has succumbed to it.”
After his doctor referred him to a urologist last year, Pickens Jr. successfully treated his cancer, opting for a robotic radical prostatectomy rather than radiation therapy.
“We detected it very early and so they thought that would be the best way to go,” he explained. “I have a rare variant that you don’t see very often. They wanted to err on the side of caution and monitor it.
“It was rare enough that they wanted to make sure they checked all the T’s and dotted all their I’s. But they hadn’t seen one that was caught as early as mine was,” Pickens Jr. said.
THE Grey’s Anatomy The star’s real-life diagnosis comes after his character, Dr. Richard Webber, revealed he had cancer in the final moments of this week’s Season 22 midseason finale.
