Shannen Doherty pleads for ‘three more years’ amid cancer battle

Shannen Doherty has shared that she is hopeful that future advancements in the treatment of cancer will allow her to live a longer life.

In June last year, the actress revealed that her cancer had metastasised, spreading to her bones and brain.
 

Speaking on Monday’s episode of her podcast Let’s Be Clear, the actress revealed her desperate hope to cling onto her health for the next few years until advancements are made in treatment.

“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,” the Charmed star said. “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,” she added.

Doherty’s guest, oncologist Dr. Lawrence Piro, used an analogy of horse racing to describe how cancer patients may use one treatment to hold out for another emerging treatment.

“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,” he said.

After praising Dr. Piro’s analogy, Doherty said, “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.”

The legendary 90s TVstar was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. While her cancer went into remission two years later, it returned as Stage 4 cancer in 2019.
 

Doherty underwent surgery in January 2023 to remove a brain tumour.

“I don’t want to die,” she told People in an interview released following the launch of her podcast.

“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 done,” she added. “My greatest memory is yet to come.”

Despite undergoing a wave of tough treatments, Doherty still found the strength to launch her podcast in late November.a