Proactive!

Chicago Tribune wire report

10:00 a.m. CDT, May 14, 2013

LONDON -- Hollywood actress and activist Angelina Jolie has had a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of getting breast cancer, saying she hopes her story will inspire other women fighting the life-threatening disease.

With the surprising news this week I thought I would share some of the excerpts from the Chicago Tribune and attach her announcement as well.

Knowing that a positive BRCA 1 test increases a women's odds of breast and ovarian cancer it is becoming more common for women to take the necessary steps to decrease these odds. In Angelina's letter she mentioned they would go from an 87% probability for breast cancer down to 5%. Amazing!

Here is a link to her letter:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html?_r=1&

My wife's BRCA 1 gene test came back negative but her mother (my mother-in-law) was diagnosed with the same breast cancer a year after my wife. So that leads me to believe there are other genetic factors out there that are left to study but the BRCA is the most common test. Our daughter will still have to be watched more closely due to these events even though my wife's BRCA was negative.

Richard Francis, head of research at the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity in Britain, said it demonstrated the importance of educating women with the gene fault.

"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," Francis told Reuters.

Breast cancer alone kills about 458,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization. It is estimated that one in 300 to one in 500 women carry a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene mutation, as Jolie does.

If your wife's test comes back positive make sure you seek out a genetic counselor to go over all of your options.