Remembering Shannen Doherty: Her Breast Cancer Story
Actor Shannen Doherty, best known for her roles on the TV shows Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed, and the movie Heathers, died from metastatic breast cancer on July 13, 2024. She was 53 years old.
In recent years, Doherty became an influential advocate for cancer awareness, care, and research. In her podcast Let’s Be Clear, and in numerous interviews and Instagram posts, she candidly shared her experiences with treatment, side effects, temporarily losing her health insurance, learning to live and work with stage IV cancer, and grappling with her mortality. She openly chronicled her ups and downs, in real time, inspiring an audience of millions of fans and followers.
What type of breast cancer did Shannen Doherty have?
During an episode of Doherty’s podcast that aired in January, oncologist Lawrence Piro, MD, describes her type of breast cancer as estrogen receptor-positive, progesterone receptor-positive, and HER2-negative.
When was she diagnosed?
Doherty has been very open about her cancer experience. According to the New York Times, she learned she had breast cancer in early 2015, at the age of 43. She underwent treatment, and in 2017 she announced that the cancer was in remission.
It returned in 2020, and in June 2023 Doherty announced that the cancer had spread to her brain. In November, she said it had spread to her bones — but she continued to work and even started a podcast that month.
What was her treatment?
On her podcast, Doherty explained that the first treatment after her 2015 diagnosis wasn’t very successful. “Nothing was really changing,” she said. “I still had… a tumor in my breast. I still wasn’t getting surgery. I… was feeling a little bit lost. The drug that this oncologist had me on put me in menopause — I wasn’t warned about that. I was definitely feeling adrift.”
Doherty describes wanting to change course but not knowing how. “A lot of patients feel as if they don't have the right to ask for a better doctor or to change doctors, or they're scared their insurance won't cover a new doctor, or they feel like they can't change doctors.”
A friend helped to connect Doherty with Dr. Piro, the president and CEO of The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute. Upon their first meeting, Doherty said that she felt Dr. Piro was someone she could trust and appreciated how swiftly he moved to work with her to change her treatment plan.
Doherty went on to have a single mastectomy with reconstruction, followed by chemotherapy and radiation. She tried cold capping, but ultimately shaved her head in the summer of 2016, as a group of friends stood by. Her Instagram posts capturing the moment she shaved her head went viral, prompting conversation about the side effects of breast cancer treatment.
By 2017, she was in remission. She chose not to take the hormonal therapy tamoxifen — a medicine that is commonly prescribed to people treated for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer to reduce the risk of the disease coming back. In her podcast, Doherty and Piro revisited the many factors that went into her decision at the time.
In 2020, Doherty announced the breast cancer had returned and was stage IV, meaning it had spread to other areas of her body. In 2023, she had brain surgery to remove one of several tumors, followed by multiple rounds of radiation. She was also receiving a new treatment specifically for brain metastasis, though she didn’t share what the medicine was.
In late June of this year, Doherty announced that treatments were no longer working.
What were her health insurance challenges?
Doherty filed a lawsuit against her former management company in 2015, alleging that the company failed to pay her health insurance premiums in 2014. As a result, she was uninsured until the next re-enrollment period. It came as a surprise to her fans that even the rich and famous face hurdles with health insurance and paying for breast cancer care.
The lapsed coverage resulted in Doherty missing checkups — all while the cancer may have been growing. It was after she re-enrolled in health insurance that she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Her lawyers claimed that “had she been insured and able to visit her doctor, the cancer could potentially have been stopped, thus obviating the need for future treatment (including mastectomy and chemotherapy) that [Doherty] will have to suffer through now.”
No one knows if the delay in care resulted in a more advanced breast cancer diagnosis. But Doherty’s story is a stark reminder of the importance of regular breast cancer screenings.
What to know about mammograms
Mammograms are one of the most important tools doctors have to screen for breast cancer. Getting regular mammograms is one of the best ways to find breast cancer early, when it’s most treatable. Multiple medical organizations recommend that women at average risk of breast cancer be offered mammograms every year starting at age 40.
Mammograms are also an important imaging tool for people who are in or have completed breast cancer treatment. Annual surveillance mammograms are usually recommended for people who have had a lumpectomy or single mastectomy.
Still, almost everyone in the United States has experienced delays in medical care because of issues with insurance or cost, so Doherty’s story is relatable.
“We can only do so much at one time,” affirms Marisa Weiss, MD, founder and chief medical officer of Breastcancer.org and director of breast radiation oncology at Lankenau Medical Center near Philadelphia. “We each have so much on our plate. How do you choose what you're going to do and when — and how much are you able to do, especially if your health insurance lapses? If it happened to [Doherty], it can happen to anyone!”
Weiss notes that there are ways to get a mammogram if you don’t have insurance or can’t afford one. Talk with your doctor, a local hospital social worker, a nurse navigator, or staff members at a mammogram center about free or low-cost mammograms in your area. A Health Insurance Marketplace Plan or Medicaid may be options for you if you don’t have insurance.
Shannen Doherty in her own words
Doherty was in and out of breast cancer treatment for almost 10 years, and for most of that time, she shared her experiences with the public. She didn’t just share details about her diagnosis and treatment, but was open about living with breast cancer — her fears, regrets, and what she called the “beautiful” things she learned from cancer — right up until the end. Her last podcast episode aired five days before she died.
Members of Doherty’s medical team — including her medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, plastic surgeon, and neurosurgeon — were frequent guests on her podcast. Together with her guests, Doherty explored such topics as:
Many found comfort and inspiration in her story.
“I think what’s beautiful and hard and interesting about cancer is that it tears you down and builds you, and tears you down and builds you,” Doherty said on Chelsea Handler’s Netflix show, Chelsea, in 2016. “It remakes you so many different times.”
— Last updated on December 6, 2024 at 6:52 PM