@Lionsgate
Shannen Doherty revealed her breast cancer has spread to her brain in a video she shared on Tuesday on her Instagram account. The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum also shared videos of her undergoing a CT scan and finding out her cancer had spread.
Doherty’s doctors found metastases, which she called mets, on her brain on January 5, Fox News reported. The actress began radiation to help treat the spreading of the cancer on January 12.
The caption on Doherty’s Instagram video began with, “January 12, 2023.” It went on to say: “January 5th, my ct scan showed Mets in my brain. Yesterdays video was showing the process of getting fitted for the mask which you wear during radiation to your brain. January 12, the first round of radiation took place.
“My fear is obvious. I am extremely claustrophobic and there was a lot going on in my life,” Doherty also captioned the post on Instagram. “I am fortunate as I have great doctors like Dr Amin Mirahdi and the amazing techs at cedar sinai. But that fear…. The turmoil….. the timing of it all…. This is what cancer can look like.”
After beginning her treatment in mid-January, the former Charmed star appeared to be doing well. She participated in a a panel at 90s Con in March for the WB fantasy drama series, on which she starred on the first three seasons. When the moderator asked how she was feeling, the actress replied, “I’m feeling great, thank you! … This crowd is amazing.”
Doherty first went public with her breast cancer diagnosis in 2015. She was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in March 2014, when she was uninsured.
The actress underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments along with a single mastectomy. She then went into remission in 2017.
However, the following year, Doherty revealed her tumor markers were “elevated.” She wrote on Instagram: “Test and results. One Tumor marker test came back good. Other… elevated. Just means I get monitored and another test.”
“But even after that call, I’m staying positive and taking stock of my life. It certainly helps put things in perspective and reminds you of what you learned thru the cancer journey. And I sometimes, need a refresher. (sic),” the actress added.
The former teen idol’s cancer came back in 2020 and was in stage four. It spread beyond its original location.
“I definitely have days where I say,’‘Why me?’ And then I go, ‘Well, why not me? Who else? Who else besides me deserves this?’ None of us do,” Doherty said on Good Morning America at the time. “I don’t think I’ve processed it. It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways.”
The actress continued to work after the cancer came back. She appears in the television movies List of a Lifetime and Dying to Belong, as well as the theatrically released films Fortress and Hot Seat.
“I want people to not hear stage 4 cancer and think of the person that is gray and falling over and they can’t move and they’re going into hospice and they can’t work,” Doherty previously said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “You get written off so quickly, even though you’re vital and healthy and happy and wanting to go out there and work.”
The news of the actress’s cancer spreading to her brain comes two months after she publicity revealed that she had filed for divorce from her husband, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, whom she married in 2011. It was her third marriage, after she was wed to Ashley Hamilton, the son of actor George Hamilton, between 1993-94. She was also married to poker player Rick Salomon from 2002-03.
Doherty launched her career in the 1980s, when, at the age of 11, she appeared on NBC’s historical Western drama television show, Little House on the Prairie, in the 1982-83 season. She then went on to star opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the 1985 romantic dance comedy movie, Girls Just Want to Have Fun. She then went on to appear in the hit 1989 black comedy, Heathers. However, her most memorable roles were her Young Artist Award-winning performance of Brenda Walsh on 90210, as well as Prue Halliwell on Charmed.