Actress and director Angelina Jolie writes in the New York Times that she decided to undergo a preventive double mastectomy after learning that she carries a mutation in her BRCA1 gene. Jolie's doctors estimated that she had an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. Jolie's mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer at 56.
After her surgery, Jolie says she now has a less than 5 percent chance of developing breast cancer.
"I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer," she writes. "It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options."
She adds, though, that the more-than-$3,000 price tag of BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing in the US makes it unaffordable for many women, and that breast cancer kills many women in low- and middle-income countries. "It has got to be a priority to ensure that more women can access gene testing and lifesaving preventive treatment, whatever their means and background, wherever they live," she writes.