Roundtree Diagnosis

By Stephen M. Silverman

12/10/1997 at 12:00 AM EST

"Shaft" actor Richard Roundtree, 57, has revealed that he suffered from breast cancer, first diagnosed in 1993. "I was thrown by the diagnosis," he tells this week's PEOPLE. "I had never heard of a man getting breast cancer." He added that he responded to radiation and chemo treatments, and has been cancer-free for six years.