Shannen Doherty: Hopeful despite renewed chemo

Shannen Doherty
Hopeful despite renewed chemo

Shannen Doherty, 53, has in her podcast “Let’s Be Clear with Shannen Doherty” gave another health update. The star of “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “Charmed”, who is suffering from breast cancer, has to undergo chemotherapy again and will have a port catheter inserted, which had been removed in the meantime.

The port made her mentally ill

When she received her first chemotherapy treatment in 2016, Doherty had a port catheter inserted into her chest, the actress says. Such systems serve as a permanent access through which infusions can be administered when frequent access is necessary. Ports are often used in the treatment of cancer.

She can remember when she was told after a year that the port could be removed. The access was always uncomfortable for her and she felt as if the port was making her more and more mentally ill. “I was thrilled, I was overjoyed” when the port could finally be removed, she describes. “Oh, I’m normal again,” she thought, even though she still has a scar in the spot. At the time, she felt as if she had overcome the cancer.

A feeling of hope mixed with sadness

Unfortunately, she had not beaten the disease. Doherty suffers from stage 4 breast cancer. She was given a lot of medication and decided not to have a port inserted and to have infusions without it. Now she has to “repeat the chemotherapy and I now know that I can’t do it the way I’ve done it before, that I have to get a port. And it’s really hard because the idea of ​​going through it all again has destroyed me.”

She knows she is in stage four, “that it is really serious” and she has “taken steps to protect my family and to get a lot of things in order”. But when you have to have a port put in, “it becomes very real in a whole different way”. Doherty does not know how long the chemo will last, whether it will be three months or maybe six – or maybe after a few weeks the whole thing will not work and the treatment will have to be changed. “I can’t predict that. My doctors can’t predict it and it’s scary,” says the actress.

“It’s like a big wake-up call, but at the same time I have to say there is something positive too, and the positive is that the molecular structure of my cancer cells has recently changed, which means there are a lot more protocols for me to try, so I have hope for the first time in maybe a few months because there are so many more protocols.” She has a feeling of hope mixed with sadness.

Doherty was first diagnosed with the disease in 2015. In June 2023, she announced to the public that she had metastases in her brain, and in November 2023, she announced in a “People” interview announced that the cancer had also attacked her bones. In January 2024, she spoke of a medical “miracle” that would buy her some time.

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