Shannen Doherty shares that her breast cancer has spread to her brain

Although Doherty graciously thanks her medical team at Cedars-Sinai for their work, she’s also straightforward about the pain and uncertainty she’s experienced as a long-term cancer patient.

“That fear…. The turmoil….. the timing of it all…. This is what cancer can look like,” she continues. In the comments, industry peers like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Selma Blair, and Mira Sorvino all commended Doherty on her strength in the face of adversity.

Since she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, Doherty’s cancer journey has been a series of ups and downs. In 2016, the cancer spread to Doherty’s lymph nodes, and the actor underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and radiation in order to finally enter a remission period in 2017. But in 2020, she announced on Good Morning America that her cancer had returned as a stage 4 ailment (meaning it had spread beyond its original location).

“It’s a bitter pill to swallow in a lot of ways,” Doherty said of her cancer at the time.