Angelina Jolie Undergoes Preventive Double Mastectomy

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The actress discovered she has the BRCA1 gene which increases the risk of getting breast cancer..

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie Undergoes Preventive Double Mastectomy Video
    Angelina Jolie Undergoes Preventive Double Mastectomy

    The actress discovered she has the BRCA1 gene which increases the risk of getting breast cancer.

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie reveals she had Preventive Double Mastectomy after Discovering Cancer Gene Video
    Angelina Jolie reveals she had Preventive Double Mastectomy after Discovering Cancer Gene

    Angelina Jolie says she underwent a preventive double mastectomy earlier this year after learning she carries a gene that increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
    In a New York Times op-ed published late Monday, the 37-year-old Academy Award winner writes that after genetic testing she learned she carries the 'faulty' BRCA1 gene.
    The risk of developing cancer due to the gene varies, but Jolie says doctors estimated she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.
    Jolie — whose mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died from cancer — says she decided to have the preventive mastectomy to be 'proactive' for the sake of her six children with her partner, Brad Pitt.
    'My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56,' Jolie writes. 'She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.'
    Jolie said she has kept the process private so far, but wrote about with hopes of helping other women.
    'I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy,' she writes. 'But it is one I am very happy that I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie discloses Preventive Double Mastectomy Video
    Angelina Jolie discloses Preventive Double Mastectomy

    Angelina Jolie says that she has had a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carried a gene that made it extremely likely she would get breast cancer.

    The Oscar-winning actress and partner to Brad Pitt made the announcement in the form of an op-ed she authored for Tuesday's New York Times under the headline, “My Medical Choice.” She writes that between early February and late April she completed three months of surgical procedures to remove both breasts.

    Jolie, 37, writes that she made the choice with thoughts of her six children after watching her own mother die too young from breast cancer.

    “My mother fought cancer for almost a decade and died at 56,” Jolie writes. “She held out long enough to meet the first of her grandchildren and to hold them in her arms. But my other children will never have the chance to know her and experience how loving and gracious she was.”

    She writes that, “They have asked if the same could happen to me.”
    Jolie said that after genetic testing she learned she carries the “faulty” BRCA1 gene and had an 87 percent chance of getting the disease herself.

    She said she has kept the process private so far, but wrote about with hopes of helping other women.

    “I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made,” Jolie writes. “My chances of developing breast canc

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie reveals she has had Preventive Double Mastectomy Video
    Angelina Jolie reveals she has had Preventive Double Mastectomy

    Actor reveals she has had mastectomy because of gene defect that increases risk of developing cancer that killed her mother.


    Angelina Jolie has revealed she has had a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer, and has gone public with the news to raise awareness.

    The actor has a defective gene, BRCA1, which significantly increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer, she writes in the New York Times. The latter disease killed her mother at the age of 56.

    Jolie says she chose not to keep the decision private in the hope that other women would get gene-tested. 'Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimise the risk,' she says.

    Women with a defect in BRCA1 have on average a 65% risk of developing breast cancer. Jolie says her doctors told her that her risk was 87% and that surgery had reduced it to 5%. The defect also increases the risk of ovarian cancer, which Jolie says doctors estimate is 50% for her.

    The 37-year-old, who has six children – three by Brad Pitt and three adopted – finished three months of medical procedures on 27 April. She says she first had 'nipple delay' to maximise the chances of saving her nipples, before breast tissue removal and, nine weeks later, reconstruction. Pitt was by her side for 'every minute of the surgeries', she said.

    Jolie said h

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie Undergoes Double Mastectomy Video
    Angelina Jolie Undergoes Double Mastectomy

    Actress Angelina Jolie announced in a New York Times op-ed article on Tuesday that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which sharply increases her risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer.
    'My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman,' Jolie wrote. 'Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy.'
    Jolie's mother, actress and producer Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer in 2007 at the age of 56. Jolie is 37 years old.
    In the Times op-ed, titled 'My Medical Choice,' Jolie said she finished three months of medical procedures at the Pink Lotus Breast Center in California on April 27 that included the mastectomies and reconstruction.
    A mastectomy is an operation that removes all or part of the breast.
    'I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy. But it is one I am very happy that I made,' Jolie wrote. 'My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent.'
    BRCA stands for breast cancer susceptibility genes -- a class of genes known as tumor suppressors, according to the National Cance

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie Double Mastectomy: Brad Pitt Gave Full Support for Mastectomy Video
    Angelina Jolie Double Mastectomy: Brad Pitt Gave Full Support for Mastectomy

    People magazine's Larry Hackett discusses how family, career affected actress' health decision.

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie Has a Double Mastectomy Video
    Angelina Jolie Has a Double Mastectomy

    Angelina Jolie announced that she recently had a double mastectomy due to her high risk of breast cancer. Find out what Wendy thinks about Angelina's brave decision.

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    Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy: Why She Did It

    May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Olivia Sterns reports on Angelina Jolie's choice to undergo a double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer. She speaks on Bloomberg Television's 'Market Makers.'

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  • Watch Angelina Jolie Reveals Double Mastectomy In New York Times Video
    Angelina Jolie Reveals Double Mastectomy In New York Times

    Angelina Jolie reveals she had a double mastectomy in a New York Times Op Ed. Jolie had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer.

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  • Watch 6 questions about Angelina Jolie
    6 questions about Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy

    Angelina Jolie had a preventative double mastectomy, meaning she chose to have both her breasts removed even though she had not been diagnosed with cancer.


    A Canadian breast cancer specialist wants people to learn from actress Angelina Jolie's experience and seek genetic testing.

    Jolie wrote an op-ed piece that appeared in the New York Times Tuesday called 'My Medical Choice' about her decision to have a preventive double mastectomy after her mother died of cancer at age 56 and tests for the 'faulty' BRCA 1 mutation revealed she had a high likelihood of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

    Below we answer some questions about the procedure:

    Is the testing covered in Canada?
    Provincial health plans cover the cost of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation testing in patients that meet criteria, such as a diagnosis of breast or ovarian cancer in a family history.

    'Only 10 per cent of the women with a mutation have been identified, so if we can use this to increase the number to 20 or 25 per cent I think that would be an opportunity,' said Dr. Steven Narod, director of the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit at Women's College Research Institute in Toronto.

    The main factors that keep women from getting the blood test for the mutation are that they don't know that tests are available and doctors don't regularly ask about family medical hist

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