Shannen Doherty's Cancer Journey, in Her Own Words
Shannen Doherty isn't afraid to get candid about cancer.
Ever since she was first diagnosed with the disease in 2015, the Beverly Hills, 90210 alum has been outspoken about the ups and downs of her health journey. And even when her breast cancer returned as stage 4 in 2019 after entering remission two years prior, she continued to share her story.
Whether it's documenting her hair loss from chemotherapy treatments or detailing her brain surgery, Shannen has been an open book through it all.
Why?
"My hope in sharing is that we all become more educated, more familiar with what cancer looks like," she wrote in a 2021 Instagram post marking Breast Cancer Awareness Month. "I hope I encourage people to get mammograms, to get regular checkups, to cut thru the fear and face whatever might be in front of you."
And in driving her own narrative, Shannen also hopes to disprove assumptions around cancer patients.
"I want people to not hear stage 4 cancer and think of the person that is gray and falling over," Shannen—who has been actively working in Hollywood amid her health struggles—once told friend Sarah Michelle Gellar in an Entertainment Tonight interview, "and they can't move and they're going into hospice."
She continued, "You get written off so quickly, even though you're vital and healthy and happy and wanting to go out there and work."
In fact, Shannen is determined to not let her diagnosis put a damper on her zest for life.
“I’m not done with living," she shared with People last year, after the cancer spread to her bones and brain. "I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating."
She added, "I’m not done with hopefully changing things for the better."
For details on Shannen's cancer journey in her own words, keep reading.
Shannen Doherty's health journey began in February 2015, doctors diagnosed her with "invasive breast cancer metastatic to at least one lymph node," according to court documents obtained by E! News.
She underwent a single mastectomy in the same year, before undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum started experiencing hair loss amid her treatments, leading her to shave her head.
"After my second treatment, my hair was really matted," she told Entertainment Tonight in July 2016. "And I went to try and brush it out, and it just fell out."
It was then Shannen decided to cut her hair, with her mom helping her style it into a "cute little bob."
"But it wasn't enough," she noted, explaining that her hair kept falling out. "I don't know if I'll ever look like me again."
In between rounds of radiation therapy, Shannen underwent reconstructive surgery as a follow-up to her mastectomy in early 2017.
In April 2017, the Charmed star announced she was in remission.
"Good news? YES," she wrote on Instagram. "Overwhelming. YES. Now more waiting."
At the time, Shannen noted that "the next five years is crucial" because reoccurrences "happen all the time."
Nearly two years after going into remission, Shannen was informed by her doctors that the breast cancer had returned—this time categorized as stage 4.
She kept the diagnosis within her inner circle until 2020.
"It's a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways," she told ABC News. "I definitely have days where I say, ‘Why me?' And then I go, ‘Well why not me? Who else? Who else beside me deserves this?' None of us do."
Despite the disheartening diagnosis, Shannen insists she's "not signing off."
"I feel like I'm a very, very healthy human being," she said in the October 2020 issue of Elle. "I'm not ready for pasture. I've got a lot of life in me."
By 2023, the cancer had metastasized to Shannen's brain and spread to her bones.
"I don't want to die," she told People. "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."
Shannen underwent surgery to have a tumor removed from her brain in January 2023.
“We got almost all," Shannen shared on her Let's Be Clear podcast, "and the rest we handled with brain radiation.”
However, she also experienced major setbacks in her road to recovery, including a "horrible reaction with steroids" she was taking at the time.
"I tried to cut it down, and then the brain would swell a little bit more, and the hand would stop working completely," she told People, explaining that she lost the ability to hold an object in her right hand for three months. "The first time a glass slipped right through my hand, I was like, 'No, no, no, no, no. This is not happening.'"
In April 2023, Shannen filed for divorce from her husband of 11 years Kurt Iswarienko, listing the separation date as Jan. 15, 2023 in documents obtained by E! News.
The BH90210 actress later accused Kurt of cheating on her during cancer treatments, saying that she learned of his alleged two-year affair moments before undergoing brain surgery.
"I went into that surgery early in the morning and I went in after I found out that my marriage was essentially over," Shannen shared in a December 2023 episode of Let's Be Clear. "I couldn't go into that surgery with him there. I felt so betrayed."
Kurt has not publicly addressed the allegations. E! News reached out to his rep for comment but didn’t hear back.
Shannen shared in January 2024 a new infusion treatment plan she was put on yielded positive results.
"After the sixth, seventh treatment we really saw it breaking down the blood brain barrier," she said on her podcast. "Do I call that a miracle? For me, that happens to be a miracle right now."
In preparation for another round of chemotherapy, Shannen shared that the procedures have left her "exhausted."
"It becomes very real in an incredibly different way," she said of her cancer journey on a June 2024 episode of her podcast, "because I have no idea how long I'm gonna be on the chemo for."
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