Shannen Doherty shares video taken moments before surgery earlier this year: 'The fear was overwhelming to me'
Shannen Doherty is sharing a glimpse of her life as she battles stage 4 breast cancer.
In a video she shared Wednesday, which was taken in January, moments before she had surgery, Doherty is seen in a hospital bed, listening to a doctor run through what will happen.
"January 16, 2023. Surgery," Doherty wrote in the caption of the post. "I had a tumor in my head they wanted to remove and also biopsy. I am clearly trying to be brave but I am petrified. The fear was overwhelming to me."
"Scared of all possible bad outcomes, worried about leaving my mom and how that would impact her. Worried that I would come out of surgery not me anymore. This is what cancer can look like," she added.
The new video comes a week after Doherty shared another video of herself getting fitted with a mask used for radiation treatment for brain cancer earlier this year. She explained in the caption that a CT scan had "showed Mets in my brain," meaning cancer cells had broken away from where they first formed and migrated there.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. In 2020, she told "Good Morning America" in an interview that the disease had spread and returned as stage 4.
While stage 4 breast cancer is often not curable, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, an improved understanding of what treatments to give and when has led to increased life expectancy.
In 2021, Doherty vowed to keep fighting "to stay alive."
"You really have to dig deep to face cancer, and in that you find all the stuff that you had hidden away," she said.
