NEW YORK, USA - Angelina Jolie revealed Tuesday, May 14, that she has
undergone a preventive double mastectomy because she had a very high
risk of breast cancer.
The 37-year-old American actress wrote in an opinion piece entitled "
in The New York Times that she had chosen the procedure because she
carries a faulty gene that increases her risk of both breast and ovarian
cancer.
Jolie, one of Hollywood's best-known faces and the partner of actor
Brad Pitt, said that because of this gene, known as BRCA1, her doctors
estimated she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and 50 percent
risk of ovarian cancer. Her mother died of cancer at the age of 56, she
said.
"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," she wrote.
"I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher
than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex," Jolie
wrote.
She said that on April 27 she completed the three months of medical procedures that the mastectomies involved.
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