St. Francis Medical Center genetic counselor Melanie Baxter says Angelina Jolie’s decision to have a preventive mastectomy is the right choice for her, but it might not be the right choice for other women.
On average, women have an 11 to 12 percent chance for developing breast cancer. Baxter says women like Angelina Jolie, who have a BRCA gene mutation, have an 87 percent chance of breast cancer.
“What women decide to do about that increased risk is a personal decision and it’s up to them,” Baxter said. “Some women do decide to do a risk-reducing surgical approach like she chose to do a preventive mastectomy, which is a removal of the breasts, to try to prevent that high risk of developing breast cancer.”
An alternative decision would be to have increased surveillance for breast cancer.
“Some women decide that a mastectomy is not the way that they would like to go. In addition to doing annual mammograms, we can recommend annual breast MRI’s where we’re always getting a look at the breast tissue every six months so that we can just keep a closer eye on the breast tissue and jump on any kind of abnormalities as early as possible,” Baxter said.
Baxter said both options are medically appropriate. She said the only time she gets concerned is when her patients are at a high risk for breast cancer and choose to do nothing, not even annual mammograms.
One in 400 women carry the BRCA gene mutation.