Shannen Doherty opens up about cancer battle

Shannen Doherty has opened up about her cancer battle.

The 45-year-old actress has been fighting breast cancer since last year and admitted that there are times when she worries if she will survive.

She told Entertainment Tonight: "It’s hard, I started thinking that I wasn’t going to live … I don’t look past today.

"I don’t know if I’ll ever look like me again."

However, Shannen is determined to beat the disease and is doing everything she can to fight it.

She said: "I want to believe that if I fight. I’m gonna be okay."

Shannen recently shaved her head and posted pictures on Instagram and her former ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ co-star Jason Priestley, 46, called her "brave" for sharing her struggle.

He said: "What she did the other day, shaving her head and posting the pictures and everything, that was incredibly brave. Shannen’s a strong kid and a tough fighter, and I know that she’s gonna come through this fight and she’s gonna be OK."

Shannen – who is currently married to her third husband Kurt Iswarienko – revealed her diagnosis in August 2015 after she filed a lawsuit against her former management and accounting firm, Tanner, Mainstain, Glynn & Johnson, who she took action against for allegedly failing to pay her SAG [Screen Actor’s Guild] medical insurance without her knowledge.

In court documents, the actress accused the firm of ignoring an invoice to pay her insurance premium in early 2014.

Shannen re-enrolled shortly before doctors discovered she has "invasive breast cancer metastatic to at least one lymph node".

Her medical team believe the cancer spread last year and would have been easier to treat if it had been detected earlier, but she failed to get a check-up at the time due to her lack of insurance.

During this time Shannen claimed the disease spread because she didn’t have up to date health insurance and consequently didn’t receive thorough care to help combat the disease from spreading.

Meanwhile, in February this year Shannen was torn between having a mastectomy or a lumpectomy to remove the tumor.

Speaking previously, she said: "Ultimately, they’re just breasts, right? I mean, I love them, they’re mine, they’re beautiful, but in the grand scheme of things, I would rather grow old with my husband [Kurt]."