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The American actress posted two videos on her Instagram account showing the radiotherapy treatment she had to undergo to treat her metastatic cancer. After three years of remission, her breast cancer returned in 2020. Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with brain metastases.
THE videos are hard to watch. And yet, it bears witness to the difficult ordeals that some people with cancer have to go through. A few days ago, Shannen Doherty posted on her Instagram account two videos in which we see her lying in tears, listening to the medical staff around her explain to her how her radiotherapy was going to take place to treat her cancerous brain tumors.
As a reminder, the American star announced in 2015 to suffer from breast cancer. Two years later, she was revealed to be in remission before relapse in 2020. Shannen Doherty has been battling a recurrence of breast cancer for three years. Since the announcement of her illness 8 years ago and until today, the actress has always spoken publicly about the evolution of her state of health.
Two days ago, she announced that her cancer had reached a new stage. “On January 5, my CT scan showed that I had brain metastases”, she wrote. Her message is accompanied by two videos in which we see her in tears and visibly not reassured just before undergoing a radiotherapy session.
In posting these videos, the actress said she wanted to “show what cancer looks like”. In particular, she wanted to show the preparation necessary before receiving the rays. In it, doctors are seen putting on a mask that covers most of his face before securing him to the examination table with what look like plastic screws. “As you can see, I’m freaked out. I am claustrophobic and these images were filmed at a very complicated time in my life. Fortunately, I am lucky to be surrounded by great doctors”she wrote under the publication.
Stereotactic radiotherapy or radiosurgery
Stereotactic radiotherapy is a high-precision radiotherapy technique based on the use of multiple convergent beams to irradiate small volumes at higher doses. The idea is to deliver strong destructive doses into the tumor while reducing the surrounding doses in order to spare the healthy organs close to the tumor as much as possible. Indeed, larger doses of radiotherapy can thus be delivered to fight against localized or metastatic tumours, resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Radiosurgery is carried out by a neurosurgeon, a radiotherapist and a physicist. The first step is to take landmarks inside the brain using the technique of stereotaxy. A stereotactic frame is attached to the skull in the operating room, after local anesthesia. Then, imaging examinations are carried out (MRI) by a radiologist, to obtain a reproduction of the brain in three dimensions.
“The physicist and the radiation therapist then define the treatment modalities. They calculate the exact trajectory of the rays to encircle the tumour, the dosage and the type of rays to be used. After this preparatory phase, the treatment itself takes place in a radiotherapy department. The session lasts between 20 and 60 minutes. Once the session is over, the helmet is removed. Radiosurgery requires hospitalization for one or two days. It is usually possible to be discharged from the hospital the day after the intervention“says the National Cancer Institute.