Shannen Doherty is hoping to "squeeze out" another few years of life as she continues to battle cancer.
Doherty, 52, was "fairly certain" her breast cancer wouldn't return, but now she's holding out hope for a cancer cure after the disease spread to her brain and bones.
"You and 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 or there's going to be that, whatever it is," Doherty said on her podcast, "Let's Be Clear," while speaking with her oncologist, Dr. Lawrence Piro.
Doherty said there will eventually be a cure.
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"There’s going to be a lot more options that will give another five years," she said.
"Then, in those five years, there’s a whole other group of options, and eventually there’s going to be a cure."
Doherty and Piro then commented on the "horse analogy" that compares battling cancer to horse racing.
"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, and 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 earlier in the episode.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. The actress underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatments along with a single mastectomy before entering remission in 2017.
In 2018, Doherty revealed her tumor markers were "elevated." By 2020, the actress's cancer was back at stage 4, spreading beyond its original location.
Doherty shared in a June social media post that her cancer had spread to her brain. Doherty's doctors found metastases, which she called mets, on her brain Jan. 5, 2023. And the actress began radiation Jan. 12, 2023.
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She shared a compilation video of herself undergoing a CT scan at the time.
"My fear is obvious. I am extremely claustrophobic and there was a lot going on in my life," Doherty captioned the post. "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."
By November, Doherty's cancer had also spread to her bones.
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Doherty has continued to work since the cancer returned. She appeared in "List of a Lifetime," "Dying to Belong," "Fortress" and "Hot Seat."
"I want people to not hear stage 4 cancer and think of the person that is gray and falling over and they can't move and they're going into hospice and they can't work," she previously said in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight." "You get written off so quickly, even though you're vital and healthy and happy and wanting to go out there and work."
