James Van Der Beek caught off-guard by cancer diagnosis

James Van Der Beek has confessed to being shocked by his cancer diagnosis.

James Van Der Beek was stunned by his cancer diagnosis.

The 47-year-old actor was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in August, and James has now admitted to being caught off-guard by the news.

Speaking to PEOPLE, James shared: “It was just a change in bowel habits.

“I thought, I probably need to change my diet a little bit. Maybe I need to stop coffee. Maybe I need to not put cream in the coffee. And then I finally took that out of the diet, and it didn’t improve, and I thought, all right, I better go get this checked out.”

James was initially relaxed about the situation, assuming it would be easy to remedy.

He shared: “I felt really, really good as I was coming out of anesthesia that I had finally done it and looked into it. And as I was coming out of the haze, the gastroenterologist said – in his most pleasant bedside manner – it is cancer.”

James was in “amazing cardiovascular shape” when he was diagnosed with cancer, and he’s confessed to being shocked by the news.

He said: “I’m very healthy. I was in amazing cardiovascular shape.

“I tried to eat healthy as much as I could, as far as I knew at the time. Though I’ve since learned a lot about what actually eating healthy is.”

James previously revealed that he has been “feeling good” and is remaining optimistic about the situation.

The actor – who is best known for playing Dawson Leery on the hit TV series ‘Dawson’s Creek’ – told PEOPLE: “I have colorectal cancer. I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis and have been taking steps to resolve it.”