A Cautionary Perspective on Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy

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My Twitter timeline is crackling this morning in response to a New York Times op-ed today by film professional Angelina Jolie. Jolie revealed that she carries a mutation in her BRCA1 genes that gives her an 87% lifetime risk of breast cancer and a 50% lifetime risk of ovarian cancer. When considered together with the early ovarian cancer death of her mother, Jolie chose to have an elective, double mastectomy to minimize her very serious risk of breast cancer. She intimates in her editorial that she will also act on her ovarian cancer risk.

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