“Grey’s Anatomy” star James Pickens Jr. recently announced that he has prostate cancer.

Pickens Jr., who has played Dr. Richard Webber on all 22 seasons of the medical drama, spoke about his diagnosis with Black Health Matters.

“It’s not the kind of news anyone wants to hear, but to be honest, prostate cancer has run through my family. 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,” he told the outlet.

The 73-year-old actor revealed that he was diagnosed in 2024 and was fortunate that doctors caught it early. Pickens Jr. said that because of his race and family history, he began getting annually tested for it when he was 41.

According to the American Urological Association, the chance of prostate cancer in Black men is approximately 60% higher than in white men.

After Pickens Jr. learned of his diagnosis, he was told he had two options: Radiation or have his prostate removed. He and his doctors opted for the latter.

“We 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’t see very often. They wanted to err on the side of caution and keep an eye on it,” Pickens Jr. explained.

He added, “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.”

Besides sharing his story with Black Health Matters in an interview, Pickens Jr. shared a PSA video with the brand to urge men to get screened for the “highly treatable” cancer if detected early.

“Today, I am living proof that early detection works,” Pickens Jr. said in the video. “If you’re Black or prostate cancer runs in your family, talk to your doctor about getting screened at age 40,” he said.