Actor Shannen Doherty has died at 53 years old. The actor was first diagnosed in 2015.
Doherty's publicist Leslie Sloane confirmed the news to TODAY.com: “It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty. On Saturday, July 13, she lost her battle with cancer after many years of fighting the disease.”
“The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie. The family asks for their privacy at this time so they can grieve in peace,” Sloane added.
The “Charmed” star first revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in 2015 and then shared she was in remission two years later. Then it returned as stage 4, which she announced in 2020.
The cancer had metastasized to her bones and her brain, and she underwent many different treatments, including brain surgery and multiple ports implanted in her chest to delivery chemotherapy drugs.
The actor has kept fans updated on many of the details of her cancer journey. Ahead, everything she's shared about her health.
Shannen Doherty passes away in 2024
Doherty passed away on July 13, 2024, after many years of undergoing treatment for breast cancer, a rep for the actor confirmed.
In a late June health update on her podcast, “Let’s Be Clear,” she shared that she was starting a new treatment protocol.
“Protocols stop working,” Doherty said during the episode. “Your body adjusts to them, becomes immune to them. Your cells change. Your cancer cells adapt — the molecular makeup of them changes and then you have to go into a different protocol.”
This new protocol required her to have a port implanted in her chest again, the same device used during her first round of chemo in 2016. Doherty tried having her chemo administered via IV for some time, but all the treatments collapsed the veins in her left arm.
Doherty went on to explain that she didn’t know how long this round of treatments would last, which she called scary. “I don’t want to lose my hair. I don’t want to be sick,” she said.
In an April 1 episode of her podcast, Doherty revealed she was anticipating that she would die soon and had been cleaning out some of her storage units to make things easier on her family, particularly her mother.
A few months prior, in January, Doherty said she was responding well to a new type of “cancer infusion” treatment and called the results a “miracle,” though she did not share exactly which drug she was receiving.
“After four treatments, we didn’t really see a difference, and everybody wanted me to switch, and I just kind of was like we’re going to keep going with this and see,” Doherty said while speaking with her radiation oncologist, Dr. Amin Mirhadi.
“After the sixth or seventh treatment, we really saw it breaking down the blood-brain barrier. Do I call that a miracle? For me, that happens to be a miracle right now. That like I sort of rolled the dice and said let’s keep going,” the actor continued.
Doherty revealed in 2023 that her cancer had spread to her brain and bones.
What type of breast cancer did Shannen Doherty have?
In 2015, Doherty revealed that she had been diagnosed with invasive breast cancer, meaning it had spread to another part of her body — one lymph node in this case.
In 2020, she revealed she had stage 4 breast cancer, also known as metastatic breast cancer, when the cancer reaches organs far from the initial site, such as the bones, brain, lungs and liver, according to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. This stage is considered advanced.
What was Shannen Doherty's illness?
Doherty died of stage 4 breast cancer on July 13, 2024.
Shannen Doherty's cancer journey
In August 2015, Doherty went public with her breast cancer diagnosis. As part of her treatment, Doherty underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and reconstructive surgery.
Two years after her initial cancer diagnosis, Doherty revealed that she was in remission.
“Moments. They happen,” Doherty captioned an Instagram post. “Today was and is a moment.”
In February 2020, Doherty announced that her cancer had returned and was stage 4. The cancer was referred to as "terminal" in court documents for her lawsuit against insurance company State Farm.
“Plaintiff Shannen Doherty is dying of stage 4 terminal cancer,” the lawsuit read. “Instead of living out her remaining years peacefully in her home, Ms. Doherty remains displaced and battling with her insurance company.”
Also in February 2020, Doherty provided an update on her health in light of publicly sharing her new diagnosis.
“I want to thank all of you for your love, prayers and support,” she wrote. “It’s an odd time right now and I find my feet not completely underneath me. To say I have stress is an understatement. To say that I’m struggling is mild.”
However, Doherty emphasized that she was hopeful for the future.
“But... I believe that I will find my footing. I’ll dig deep for the inner strength I need to face it all. I pray I do it all with dignity and grace. I have so much to say. So much to share. I will. For now... please know how much you all help lift me,” she wrote.
During an interview with Elle magazine in September 2020, Doherty reassured her fans that she didn't have any plans of quitting acting after the return of her cancer.
“It’s like anybody with stage 4 faces this sort of thing, where others want to put you out to pasture,” she said at the time. “I’m not ready for pasture. I’ve got a lot of life in me.”
While talking with People in September 2021, Doherty explained that her cancer was just "part of life at this point."
“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 said at the time.
In January 2023, the actor underwent surgery to have a tumor removed from her head because the cancer had spread to her brain.
She shared the development with her fans six months later in June 2023, when she posted a video from the hospital and revealed how she was feeling in that moment.
“My fear is obvious," she captioned it. "I am extremely claustrophobic and there was a lot going on in my life. 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."
In an Instagram post a week later, she shared another video of herself in the hospital from January, this time preparing for surgery to remove and biopsy a tumor in her head.
"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 wrote.
In a November 2023 interview with People, Doherty said her stage 4 breast cancer had spread to her bones.
“I’m not afraid of dying, I just don’t want to die. Like ever,” she told the magazine.
"I will be on treatment for the rest of my life until one of these clinical trials goes through. ... It's about pushing through the next two, three, four, five years because in that period of time, in three to five years, there's going to be another new protocol, a new clinical trial," she said.
Doherty is remembered by friends and costars including those who've also been diagnosed with cancer. Olivia Munn, who revealed her breast cancer diagnosis in March 2024 wrote on Instagram, "When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer I remembered how (Doherty) bravely let the world into her journey and I reached out to her. We became instant friends.” Munn went on to describe their bond, aim to help other women and the final text Doherty wrote to her offering Munn support.
Jennie Garth called Doherty "courageous, passionate, determined and very loving and generous."
“Shannen Doherty had the heart of a lion,” Doherty's "Charmed" costar Rose McGowan wrote. McGowan went on to describe her as "a soft-hearted badass as there ever was. A force of energy that will live forever in hearts.”
