Shannen Doherty Says Her Cancer Battle Is ‘Part of Life at This Point’: ‘I Never Really Complain’

Shannen Doherty is living with stage 4 breast cancer. Doherty shared her perception about breast cancer in detail on Tuesday during a virtual panel for her upcoming Lifetime film List of a Lifetime that revolves around a woman who has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Doherty said,

I feel like I have a responsibility in my more public life, which I separate from my acting life … to talk about cancer and perhaps educate people more and let people know that people with stage 4 are very much alive and very active.

She added further,

As far as Doherty’s upcoming movie List of a Lifetime is concerned, the film centers around breast cancer patient who reunites with her daughter she gave up for adoption years ago.

Doherty has called her movie ‘the first acting thing I’ve done about cancer’ as she announced the return of her own breast cancer last year.

Doherty also said,

Doherty also praised the performance of her co-stars in the film,

I didn’t have to give anybody advice because [of director Roxy Shih] and these beautiful ladies who did such a beautiful job with their own preparation process.

She also added,

Doherty came to know about her cancer for the first time in 2015.  She shared the news with PEOPLE exclusively at that time. Luckily, she got rid of breast cancer in 2017 but she revealed in 2020 that her cancer had returned at stage 4.

Doherty told to her close friend Sarah Michelle Gellar during an interview with Entertainment Tonight in October last year,

You get written off so quickly, even though you’re vital and healthy and happy and wanting to go out there and work.

Doherty added,

Everybody’s terminal. I might live a lot longer than somebody who’s perfectly healthy. You have no idea.