Angelina Jolie Cancer Surgery Will Fight Genetic Odds; Angelina Jolie Breast Cancer Surgery Was Just The Beginning of the Fight

Angelina Jolie had breast cancer surgery, before genetics caught up with her, was a smart decision. Angelina Jolie went public about undergoing cancer-preventative surgery last year. 


When Angelina Jolie went public with her breast cancer surgery after the procedure, it brought awareness to the benefits of cancer-prevention surgery. Angelina Jolie says she'll have another surgery to lessen the chance she'll get cancer even further.


Angelina Jolie will undergo more cancer surgery to remove her ovaries to prevent ovarian cancer. Angelina Jolie discovered she had a 50 percent risk of developing ovarian cancer and will get a procedure is called an oophorectomy.


The 38-year-old actress is fighting genetic odds stacked against her. Jolie, whose mother Marcheline Bertrand died from ovarian cancer in 2007, underwent a double mastectomy after learning she carried the cancer-causing BRCA1 gene. Genetic tests showed Angelina had an 87 percent chance of developing breast cancer and had a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. Angelina's maternal grandmother died from an unknown illness at age 45. Jolie's aunt died of breast cancer aged 65.
Jolie is expected to have a hysterectomy and an oophorectomy. Angelina says the ovary-removal procedure will lower her risk of ovarian cancer by 80%-90%. Jolie's oophorectomy will reduce the amount of estrogen and progesterone circulating in the body. 


Angelina Jolie went public after her breast cancer surgery in May 2013. 


Angelina had the first surgery after discovering she was at high risk of developing breast cancer. She said "I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I'll get advice from all these wonderful people who I've been talking to, to get through that next stage."


Angelina wrote in the New York Times that, "Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy. I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex."


In an article entitled "My Medical Choice," the mother-of-six has previously explained "I was very fortunate to have great doctors and very, very fortunate to have a good recovery and have a project like Unbroken to have something to be really focused on, to be getting healthy for, and to be able to just get right back to work."
Angelina recently told Entertainment Weekly "I'm great!... I'm very happy I made the decision. I feel very, very close-much closer-to other women, and women who are going through the same thing. Wherever I go, usually I run into women and we talk about health issues, women's issues, breast cancer, ovarian cancer. I've talked to men about their daughters' and wives' health. It makes me feel closer to other people who deal with the same things and have either lost their parents or are considering surgeries or wondering about their children...The reason that I wrote it was to try to communicate and help and connect with other women and other families going through the same thing. And...I was very, very moved by all the support and kindness from so many people." 

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Angelina Jolie
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