The recent announcement by actress Angelina Jolie that she underwent a double mastectomy to lower her risk of cancer has encouraged many other women to consider the same kind of preventative surgery.
A survey by market research company YouGov suggests seven out of 10 women in Great Britain would opt for the same procedure if tests showed they too had a high chance of developing breast cancer, according to a report by World Entertainment News Network.
The Academy Award winner submitted an op-ed piece in the New York Times, which she revealed he had both breasts removed, since she carries a rare BRCA 1 gene, which increases a person's risk of developing breast cancer five times and ovarian cancer by 10.
Jolie said that doctors had estimated she "had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer" due to the "faulty" gene.
Soon after news of Jolie's double mastectomy hit the wires, about 68 percent of women surveyed indicated would also choose to have all natural breast tissue removed and replaced with implants if tests showed they a high probability of developing breast cancer.
While that proactive approach to avoiding possible cancer has generally been met as a positive change in public awareness of the disease, several doctors have made an effort to put Jolie's personal decision into clearer perspective, according to a report by Nature World News.
Dr. H. Gilbert Welch, a professor of medicine at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, wrote in an opinion piece of his own published by CNN that he "understood her choice," but that "the majority of women...are at average risk for breast cancer."
Welch, author of the book "Overdiagnosed: Making People Sick in the Pursuit Health," said it wasn't made clear by Jolie that only 1 percent of women carry the mutated BRCA 1 gene.
"They are not Angelina Jolie," he said, and it's likely most of the women now determine to go through the same treatment Jolie did in fact "should not have a preventative mastectomy."
Dr. Aaron E. Carroll, an associate professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the director of the university's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research, used his own CNN-published opinion piece to revisit the risks associated with a mastectomy itself.
"I have no doubt that this piece is causing many women across the country to think about their own health and chances of developing the disease," Carroll wrote in reference to Jolie's article.
However, he continued, a double mastectomy is not risks, because not only is it a major procedure that can well prove hard on one's body, but it could introduce psychological consequences post-operation as well.
Besides those risks, Carroll said, such a procedure is considered only 90 percent effective, which means there's a 10 percent chance cancer will grow in the chest wall, armpit or even the abdomen anyway.
"It's pretty much impossible for even the best surgeon to remove all breast tissue from a woman," he said.
- Contribute to this Story:
- Send us a tip
- Send us a photo or video
- Suggest a correction
