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| Angelina Jolie, pictured in London on 11 April, revealed in the New York Times that she underwent a preventative double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery that was completed on 27 April. |
Angelina Jolie has revealed she has had a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer.
Health
campaigners praised her decision to go public with the news, which she
said was prompted by a desire to encourage other women to get
gene-tested and to raise awareness of the options available to those at
risk.
The actor has a defective gene, BRCA1, which doctors told her had increased her risk of developing breast cancer to 87%, and her risk of ovarian cancer, the disease that killed her mother at the age of 56, to 50%, she wrote in the New York Times.
The surgery, which began in February, had reduced Jolie's risk of breast cancer to less than 5%, she said.
"I
can tell my children that they don't need to fear they will lose me to
breast cancer," she wrote. "It is reassuring that they see nothing that
makes them uncomfortable. They can see my small scars and that's it.
Everything else is just Mommy, the same as she always was. And they know
that I love them and will do anything to be with them as long as I can.
On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered
that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity."
The
37-year-old, who has six children – three adopted and three with Brad
Pitt, who was by her side for "every minute of the surgeries" – finished
three months of medical procedures on 27 April. She said she first had
"nipple delay" to maximise the chances of saving her nipples, before
breast tissue removal and, nine weeks later, reconstruction.
Jolie
wrote: "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."
Wendy Watson, who founded the UK's National Hereditary
Breast Cancer Helpline, welcomed Jolie's decision to write publicly
about her operation.
"It is excellent, because it is the highest
profile you can get for it," she said. "It raises the profile for other
women to look to if they have a family history and would benefit from
being screened more frequently, or having surgery or having a genetic
test," she said. "She probably feels that undergoing the operation is
common sense but it probably does take a certain amount of courage to
face it."
The UK foreign secretary, William Hague, who visited refugee camps in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with Jolie in March, said she would be "an inspiration to many".
"She
is a courageous lady and a very professional lady. She's done a lot of
work with me in recent months," he told Sky News. Jolie has worked with
refugees for years and last year was appointed as a special envoy for the UN high commissioner for refugees.
Hague
said: "She gave no sign that she was undergoing such treatment and I
think she's a very brave lady, not only to carry on with her work so
well during such treatment, but also to write about it now and talk
about it."
Dr Richard Francis, head of research at Breakthrough
Breast Cancer, said that faults in the BRCA1 gene, which on average put
women at a 65% risk of developing breast cancer, were rare and in most
cases were linked to family history.
He cautioned that a
mastectomy would not necessarily be the appropriate treatment for
everyone with the gene. "For women like Angelina it's important that
they are made fully aware of all the options that are available,
including risk-reducing surgery and extra breast screening.
"Though
Angelina decided that a preventative mastectomy was the right choice
for her, this may not be the case for another woman in a similar
situation.
"We urge anyone who is worried about their risk of breast cancer to talk it through with their doctor."
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