Shannen Doherty hoping to ‘squeeze out three to five years’ of life

Article content

Shannen Doherty is hopeful she can live another “three to five years” as she battles Stage 4 breast cancer.

Article content

On the latest episode of her Let’s Be Clear podcast, the 52-year-old Beverly Hills 90210 star discussed how cancer treatments have gotten more advanced in recent years during a conversation with oncologist Dr. Lawrence Piro.

Article content

“I always talk about the fact that we just need to squeeze out another three to five years, and then there’s going to be T-cell therapy or there’s going to be this,” Doherty said of the constantly changing field of cancer care.

She said that the advancements will lead to longer lives and an eventual cure for the disease.

“There’s going to be a lot more options that will give another five years. Then in those five years, there’s a whole other group of options, and eventually there’s going to be a cure,” Doherty continued.

Article content

Article content

Piro compared living with cancer to being in a horse race.

“I always say that it’s important to think of each therapy as a horse, and in a horse race, you want to ride every horse as long as it rides, and then you ride the next horse as much as possible… you hope you make it a few laps then there’s altogether another new set of horses to ride, to make the race that much longer,” Piro said.

Doherty said the horse analogy was fitting. “I’m riding those horses so I get to the fresh set of horses, and I’m trying to get the one I’m on right now to last for as long as humanly possible.”

In November, Doherty revealed that her Stage 4 breast cancer had spread to her bones.

The Charmed star was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015, but she announced that she had gone into remission two years later. In 2020, Doherty broke the news the cancer had returned and was Stage 4.

Article content

This past summer, Doherty revealed that the cancer had also spread to her brain as she tearfully posted a video of herself going through “the process of getting fitted for the mask which you wear during radiation.”

After going public with her Stage 4 diagnosis, Doherty told Variety in 2021 that her goal was to prove to Hollywood that people with cancer could still work. “The best example that I can continue to set for other people with cancer, and to the outside world who doesn’t have cancer,” Doherty said, “is to show them what a cancer patient looks like. We are employable.”

This past September, Doherty was teary-eyed as she reunited with her 90210 castmates at 90s Con in Tampa, Fla.

“I have a fight for my life, that I deal with every day,” Doherty said during the conversation that was hosted by PEOPLE’s Senior Editor Breanne L. Heldman.

Throughout her cancer fight, Doherty has candidly documented her health battles with her followers on social media.

Her personal life also underwent upheaval. In April, Doherty filed for divorce from her husband, Kurt Iswarienko, after 11 years of marriage following allegations he was unfaithful.

Now, Doherty says she spends her days living in a state of gratitude, telling PEOPLE she is determined to stay positive.

“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,” she said in November.

Article content

“I am a very spiritual person, so when I have done what I am here for, on this earth for, then that’ll be fine,” she tells the outlet of her eventual death. “But I’m not anywhere near that … I don’t want to die.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com

X: @markhdaniell

Article content