Shannen Doherty Reveals Cancer Has Spread to Her Brain

Shannen Doherty has given fans an update on her cancer battle, revealing that the disease has spread to her brain. In a recent Instagram post, the actress shared a video of her treatment, which required that she wear a special medical mask. In the post caption, Doherty explained the process and clarified that it was necessary due to the cancer spreading.

“January 12, 2023. On January 5th, my ct scan showed Mets in my brain,” she wrote, then referring back to a post she’d made just one day prior. “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.” Offering some emotional insight into how she was feeling during the procedure, Doherty wrote, “My fear is obvious. I am extremely claustrophobic and there was a lot going on in my life. 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.”

Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer back in 2015, but after treatments and surgery, she announced in 2017 that her cancer was in remission. In February 2020 she revealed that her cancer had returned. Regarding how she’d been coping with the news that it returned, Doherty said at the time, “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. But I would say that my first reaction is always concern about how — how am I going to tell my mom, my husband.”

After only telling just a small group of close family and friends, Doherty said that her 90210 co-star Brian Austin Green was one of the most supportive people in her corner. “I had moments of great anxiety where I thought, ‘I can’t really do this,’ and Brian was the one person who — of that group of people that knew — that I told, like, pretty quickly and said, ‘This is what I’m dealing with,’” she said. “So prior to shooting, he would always call me and say, ‘Listen, you know, whatever happens, I have your back.’ He would look at me and be like, ‘We got this, kiddo’… so Brian helped me through a lot.”