“I am grateful for every second, every hour and every day that I am here.” This is how forceful actress Shannen Doherty was when she revealed that her cancer had spread to her bones. “I don’t want to die,” she said. The actress, who is now 52 years old, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 2020 – although she was already diagnosed with the disease in 2015 -, in stage four.
The disease reached the brain and, since then, he has done nothing but undergo treatments. However, the actress has not lost hope, even less after trying the last one, which she seems to have worked a small “miracle.”
“I’m not going to say what it is, but I’m on a new form of chemotherapy and after four treatments we didn’t see a difference. Everyone wanted me to change and I said let’s continue,” explains Doherty on his podcast, Let’s Be Clear, where he went as a guest his oncologist, Dr. Amin Mirhadi.
“After the sixth or seventh treatment, we saw the blood-brain barrier break down. Do I call it a ‘miracle’? Yes. To me, this is a miracle right now. I kind of took a gamble and said, ‘Let’s move forward.’ ‘”.
The blood-brain barrier, among other things, allows certain substances (water or oxygen, among other things) to pass into the brain; leaving out harmful substances. The anti-cancer medication administered to the actress would have managed to penetrate that barrier.
An advance that was already successfully tested in 2023, after research by Northwestern Medicine scientists, where it was possible to attack the worst type of brain cancer using an ultrasound device, administering the treatment in just four minutes.
The interpreter, who gave life to the unforgettable Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills: 90210, Feeling of Living, felt confident enough to move forward with this treatment, which she considers hopeful, given the circumstances. “It’s a miracle. Maybe God stepped in and said, ‘I’m going to give him a break.’ Sometimes you look for miracles in the wrong places, and they’re right in front of you.”
However, the actress assures that only with a positive mentality is she able to have achieved all these advances. “Every day is a gift,” she insists, “Hope is always there. It’s so important. All I can do is live each day as positively as possible.”
