Shannen Doherty Updates Fans About Her Battle With Stage Four Cancer
Shannen Doherty is a courageous, strong and empowering woman as she updates her fans that a stage four breast cancer diagnosis will not stop her from living her life.
The ’90s favorite reformed “diva,” Shannen Doherty revealed in February that her breast cancer had returned, diagnosed as metastasized which means that it had spread beyond her breast and lymph nodes. She was originally diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 but entered remission in 2017 following chemo, surgery, and radiation. Sadly, it came back in 2019 as stage four breast cancer.
Now, the 49-year-old actress is opening up to Elle about her ongoing health battle and how her health is doing amid the pandemic. These days, Doherty is settled down in Malibu, following government COVID-19 mandates and tending to her vegetable garden with her photographer husband, Kurt Iswarienko.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed alum told her friends and family the devastating news at a dinner party where she invited her oncologist, Piro, to answer any pending questions that they may have, regarding her diagnosis. He told her invited guests that her treatment will involve hormone therapy to block the estrogen fueling her cancer, plus a second targeted drug that is often effective at stabilizing metastatic disease.
She admits that she has been mentally cataloging who should have her possessions, writing letters to loved ones, and making videos for her husband and mother to watch after she passes. A few weeks before the infamous Venice dinner party, Doherty underwent a PET scan, after suffering from excruciating back pain. Her husband was out on a photo shoot, leaving her all alone when Piro called to say that the PET scan showed that her breast cancer had returned.
About 300,000 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Stage four breast cancer is the most severe as it means that the cancer has metastasized, or traveled, through the bloodstream to create tumors in the liver, lungs, brain, bones, and/or other parts of the body. Between 20 and 30 percent of women with early-stage breast cancer go on to develop metastatic disease.
Although metastatic breast cancer has no cure, it can be treated. Receiving proper treatment can increase both your quality of life and your longevity. The actress believes that there is still so much left of her to give to this world.
“It feels like you’re signing off, and I’m not signing off,” she says to Elle. “I feel like I’m a very, very healthy human being. It’s hard to wrap up your affairs when you feel like you’re going to live another 10 or 15 years.”
Doherty is in the process of developing numerous projects, including a new television show and serving as an advocate for other metastatic breast cancer patients. The most important thing for her is to continue to have new experiences and adventures.
“I try to treasure all the small moments that most people don’t really see or take for granted,” Doherty said in the October issue. “The small things are magnified for me. We have this endless well within us, and it’s just about continuing to dig in that well for the strength to face adversity — and so that we can also see all the beauty.”
