Following Jolie’s Mastectomy, What Are Your Options?

[WCCO-TV, May 14, 2013] Actress, activist and philanthropist Angelina Jolie revealed in the New York Times she had a voluntary double mastectomy, and said her decision came after learning she had an 87 percent risk of getting cancer.

The actress discovered she had the potentially deadly BRCA gene mutation after losing her mother to ovarian cancer in 2007. She said the surgeries were successful, and that her chances of getting breast cancer are now less than 5 percent. BRCA-1 mutation is responsible for about 5 percent of all breast cancer diagnosis and about 15 percent of all ovarian cancers.

“It wouldn’t ensure [Jolie] would have gotten cancer, but it creates a substantial increased risk,” Allina Health Genetic Counselor Shari Baldinger said.  See the rest of the story at wcco.com.