LOS ANGELES — " Grey's Anatomy " star James Pickens Jr. said he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Pickens, who has played Dr. Richard Webber for 22 seasons on the medical drama, said he and his doctors were able to catch it early thanks to his routine screenings.

"It’s not the kind of news anyone wants to hear, but to be honest, prostate cancer has run through my family," the 73-year-old actor told Black Health Matters . "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."

That's what motivated him to take prostate-specific antigen tests, a blood test that can measure the level of a protein made by the prostate gland, according to the Mayo Clinic. He said he has been getting the tests since he turned 41.

"My ur

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