Shannen Doherty Reveals Update on Stage 4 Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Many have been rooting for former Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty in her public battle with breast cancer.

The star however revealed this year that the cancer she had been dealing with since 2015 had returned and spread. After suffering from intense back pain Doherty was told of her reccurence.

It was in 2015 that Doherty initially received her diagnosis and underwent treatment for the disease including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy.

“I try to treasure all the small moments that most people don’t really see or take for granted,” Doherty told Elle in a story published this week. “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.”

On the news of the disease recurring, Doherty said, “I was like, ‘OK, do I have good karma? Do I have bad karma? Why would I have bad karma?’ I started taking stock of my life and the things I’d done, and the things I hadn’t done. How I was with people.”
Doherty decided that yes, she was “a really good human being.”

Doherty said her oncologist Dr. Lawrence Piro has explained that she would have to undergo “hormone therapy to block the estrogen fueling her cancer, plus a second targeted drug that is often effective at stabilizing metastatic disease.”

“I haven’t sat down to write letters. That’s something I need to do,” Doherty said. “There are things I need to say to my mom. I want my husband to know what he’s meant to me.”

“But whenever it comes time for me to do it, it feels so final. It feels like you’re signing off, and I’m not signing off,” Doherty said. “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.”

“It’s like anybody with Stage IV faces this sort of thing, where others want to put you out to pasture,” Doherty said. “I’m not ready for pasture. I’ve got a lot of life in me.”