

Explaining Angelina Jolie’s double mastectomy: What it is, how it’s done and why it helps prevent breast cancer

Brad Pitt and fiancee Angelina Jolie in 2011.

Angelina Jolie had double mastectomy: Explaining the preventive procedure

Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie announced on Tuesday that she had a preventive mastectomy after learning she had a gene that significantly raised her risk of breast cancer. Here’s a crash course in the procedure Jolie had and why.

What kind of surgery did Jolie have?

Why did she have the mastectomies?
Jolie says that she has a “faulty” version of the BRCA1 gene that means she had an 87 percent chance of getting breast cancer. By having both breasts removed preventively, she said her breast cancer risk drops to below 5%.

The average woman has a 12% of developing breast cancer sometime during her life

What did the procedure involve?
In double mastectomies, surgeons typically remove as much breast tissue as possible. In Jolie’s case, because she was having a reconstruction done shortly afterward, the doctors preserved the skin covering her breasts, inserting “fillers” where the breast tissue would have been, to keep the skin elastic. According to Jolie, she had implants put in nine weeks later.

How many women have this faulty gene?

How do these genes increase a woman’s risk of breast cancer?

 Artem Korotayev/AFP/Getty Images

How can women find out if they have these gene mutations?
A genetic test using a blood test can usually detect these genes. In the U.S., there are no standard guidelines recommending women for BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic testing. The tests usually cost at least several hundred dollars. Women may be at higher risk for having a harmful mutation if they have close family members diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer at an early age. Jolie says that her mother fought cancer for nearly a decade before dying at age 56.

What other options might Jolie have had?

How relevant is Jolie’s decision to other women?

But for women with a similar genetic risk to Jolie, it’s possible her decision to go public about her double mastectomies will prompt more procedures. “It’s a very empowering message that women are not helpless when faced with a genetic cancer risk,” Johnson said.

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