Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) — Send good wishes out to Shannen Doherty. The 45-year-old actress tells Entertainment Tonight that her breast cancer has spread.
Doherty was first diagnosed with breast cancer in February of 2015. Now, she tells ET, “I had breast cancer that spread to the lymph nodes, and from one of my surgeries we discovered that some of the cancer cells might have actually gone out of the lymph nodes…So for that reason, we are doing chemo, and then after chemo, I’ll do radiation.”
She adds that she’s concerned that the treatments won’t work, and that her condition will worsen. “The unknown is always the scariest part,” she says, adding, “Everything else is manageable. Pain is manageable…living without a breast is manageable, it’s the worry of your future and how your future is going to affect the people that you love.”
Doherty recently shared photos of herself on her Facebook, shaving her head. Explaining why, she tells ET, “After my second treatment, my hair was really matted, like in dreadlocks. And I went to try and brush it out, and it just fell out,” Doherty recalls. In addition to hair loss, she is also experience other side effects from her treatment.
“People don’t realize that cancer — yes, it ages you — but also, you can balloon up from the various meds. There are so many different reactions you have,” she says. “I didn’t want someone to take a picture of me coming out of the grocery store and be like, ‘Oh God, look at her.'”
Doherty’s interview with ET begins airing tonight.
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