“My chances of developing breast cancer have gone from 87% to less than 5%. My children should no longer fear losing me to that disease.” With these words Angelina Jolie summarized in an article published by The New York Times newspaper on May 14, 2013 why she had undergone a preventive double mastectomy –the removal of both mammary glands–.
Two years later, he also had his ovaries and fallopian tubes removed. The actress took such drastic measures for her family history , since her mother had died of cancer , and for the results of a test to detect mutations in the BRAC1 and BRAC2 genes, which predispose to breast and ovarian tumors.
As the media reported at the time, this announcement dramatically increased the percentage of requests for genetic testing . In theory, Jolie’s words had served to sensitize the population. Now, a study published in the online journal BMJ has put exact figures on what was called the ‘Angelina Jolie effect’ among American women aged 18 to 64 with health insurance. According to statistical data, BRAC gene tests went from 0.71 per 100,000 in the 15 days before the New York Times article to 1.13 in the two weeks after. This represents a relative increase of 64% .
However, the number of preventive mastectomies did not rise to par ; there was even a decrease in women with BRAC gene mutations who had their breasts removed. This, the authors of the work suggest, may be due to the fact that these types of announcements have a great impact on public opinion in general but not on the true population at risk : people with a family history of cancer.
