Empathy For Animals
- Beverly Hills 90210 actress Shannen Doherty, 49, who has been battling metastatic breast cancer, urges people to stop using poison to control rodent problems, and posts a video of a sick owl, thanks California Wildlife Center for “taking in so many animals that humans hurt.”
- The animal activist fights her disease with passion every day as she fights for animal rights and promotes awareness of animal cruelty and suffering.
- While there is no cure, metastatic breast cancer has many treatment options that vary depending on each individual disease. Hormone therapy, chemotherapy and targeted drugs are all options to talk to her doctor about, depending on your individual needs.
View this post on Instagram
The advocate has made her love of animals known in past posts. In October, Doherty reposted a photo of a wolf in support of the non-profit organization IFAW, which improves conditions for animals and humans. “We can fight this and we should,” she says of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove federal protection for all gray wolves in the United States, aside from parts of Arizona and New Mexico.
In another post, she spoke highly of Netflix’s The Octopus Teacher. “If there is one thing to watch, it is this. This documentary moved me to my core and gave me an even deeper understanding of our connection to other living beings and our precious planet. Please watch.”
Doherty also shared the picture of serenity with a beautiful photo of her husband, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, and herself on horseback in the middle of green rolling hills in front of a little lake. The actress has been making it known that she’s taking time to really make the most of every day and celebrate with beautiful moments like these.
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
As far as animals that Doherty supports, the compassionate Memphis native does not discriminate. Her posts have been dedicated to helping tigers, koalas, giraffes, and last, but certainly not least, Doherty’s beloved dog Bowie makes frequent appearances on her feed.
View this post on Instagram
Animals and Healing
It is often said that animals improve our quality of life, and that can especially be true for people battling cancer like Doherty. Though she has always been an advocate, her passion for animals gives her something to focus on and put her heart into each and every day. We often need to keep going, and there have been studies showing the power of passion of positivity affecting the outcome of your disease.
What is Stage 4 Breast Cancer
Stage 4, or metastatic breast cancer, means that your cancer has now spread to distant areas of the body. Even though there is currently no cure for metastatic breast cancer, doctors have many options to treat this stage advanced stage of breast cancer. Hormone therapy, chemotherapy and targeted drugs are all options to talk to her doctor about, depending on your individual needs. Sometimes surgery and/or radiation is considered as part of the treatment, but mainly it is important to focus on improving your quality of life.
Managing Metastatic Breast Cancer
Dr. Elizabeth Comen from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center told SurvivorNet in a previous interview that her treatment plan for patients depends on the specific needs of the woman coming into her office with metastatic breast cancer. “Do we need to be very aggressive and give chemotherapy? Or might this woman benefit from some other medication,” she said.
For hormone receptive positive cancer breast cancer patients, “we try to see how long we can keep them on oral therapies. Very often newly diagnosed newly diagnosed metastatic hormone receptive positive breast cancers respond best and for the longestand sometimes yearswith different hormonal medications. If a woman has exhausted all of those options and has become resistant to them, then we start thinking about chemotherapies, of which there are many.” There are more and more options becoming available for patients to manage symptoms of advanced stage disease, and it’s best to talk about specific treatment plans and what is best for you with your own doctor.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
