Shannen Doherty, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, has now revealed that the cancer has spread to her bones. The actor shares news of her condition in a new cover story for People magazine. Despite this unfortunate news, Doherty remains optimistic and hopes to join new clinical trials as they’re developed, she informs the outlet.
“I don’t want to die,” she shares. “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating. I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better. I’m just not—I’m not done.”
After her 2015 diagnosis, Doherty announced she’d gone into remission in 2017. However, her cancer returned in 2019, and she revealed she had metastatic stage 4 cancer in 2020. “It’s stage 4 breast cancer that spread into my bones. So I think of it as the Pac-Man video game where they start to go into your bones. But we’re on a really good regimen now and it’s working well for me so… day by day, month by month, year by year,” she explains. She found out in January that she had brain metastases, and had a tumor “removed and dissected to see [its] pathology,” having to do brain radiation both before and after. “It was definitely one of the scariest things I’ve been through in my entire life,” she says.
The People cover coincided with the announcement of her new iHeart Radio podcast, Let’s Be Clear With Shannen Doherty. “I will be opening up like never before in a series of brutally honest conversations with some very special and influential people in my life,” Doherty teased on Instagram. “From former co-stars, to friends and family, to the brilliant doctors guiding me through my cancer journey...it’s going to be a wild ride.”
Speaking to People about living with stage 4 cancer, Doherty reflects, “People just assume that it means you can’t walk, you can’t eat, you can’t work. They put you out to pasture at a very early age—‘You’re done, you’re retired,’ and we’re not. We’re vibrant, and we have such a different outlook on life. We are people who want to work and embrace life and keep moving forward.”