James Pickens Jr has been diagnosed with prostate cancer

He told Black Health Matters: "I started getting my annual physical 34 years ago, and I started my PSA testing when I was 41. I'm 73 now. My urologist said, 'Because 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.'

"We caught it really early, and so they thought [surgery] 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. 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."

James revealed the news was not a huge shock to him as other family members have been previously diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He explained: "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.

I've got a 90-year-old first cousin, who's still alive, actually, [and] 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.

Pickens' Grey's Anatomy alter-ego Dr Webber announced on a recent episode of the medical drama that he had been diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer.