Overview
- Shaw, 52, disclosed in an Instagram video on Friday that she will begin a five‑month course of chemotherapy at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
- She said doctors changed course after tests showed her cancer is HER2 positive, which called for starting systemic treatment rather than proceeding straight to surgery.
- After chemotherapy, she hopes to have surgery to remove lumps and affected lymph nodes for testing, with the possibility of further operations and radiotherapy.
- Former Coronation Street colleagues including Samia Longchambon, Sally Ann Matthews, Denise Welch and others posted public messages of support.
- HER2 is a protein that can drive faster cancer growth, and NHS guidance says treatment often combines surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted or hormone therapies depending on test results.