One of the biggest stars in the world has gone public with her fight to prevent breast cancer.
Angelina Jolie had both of her healthy breasts removed after learning she had inherited the breast cancer gene from her mother, who died of ovarian cancer.
The 37-year-old award winning actress is partnered with movie star Brad Pitt, is the mother of six kids and is now pro-active survivor. Jolie went public with her news of her prophylactic double mastectomy in today's New York Times
She told the paper "my doctors estimate that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer. Once I knew that, this was my reality. I decided to be pro-active and to minimize the risk as much as I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy."
“For her to stand up and make these decisions and do that, says Ottawa resident Darla Willbond, “that sends a lot of strong messages out there for women.”
Willbond is currently undergoing chemotherapy for a breast cancer diagnosis in November. With a family history of cancer, she was tested recently for the cancer gene, BRCA-2. The test was positive. Like Jolie, Willbond has decided to remove both breasts but also her ovaries to try to save her life.
“The risks of getting the cancer back were high enough that it wasn't much a decision,” says Willbond, as she plays with her 2-year-old granddaughter Bronwyn. “I plan on living to 85 plus. I’ve got children and grandchildren and I want to be a great grandmother one day. It wasn't that hard of a decision for me. I said to my doctors, I’m going to go ahead with that.”
Approximately one thousand women a year will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the Ottawa area. Only about 5% of those though, or about 50 women, will have the genetic-inherited cancer that Angelina Jolie.
The Ottawa Hospital oncologist who treats Darla Willbond says that while Jolie's decision seems extreme, it is not uncommon.
Dr. Mark Clemons says "In patients identified with having a genetic abnormality like Jolie with a high risk of breast cancer in the future, many of them would chose prophylactic surgery, that's surgery to remove healthy breast tissue to reduce their risk of getting breast cancer in the future.”
Willbond's three daughters and son will now be tested to see if they, too, carry the cancer gene. There are difficult, painful decisions ahead for them but at least, like Jolie, they have medical options open to them that could change course of their lives.
Jolie says she decided to go public with her surgery to let other women at high risk know about these option, as difficult as they are she admits. But Jolie says her risk of cancer now, post-surgery, has gone from 87 percent to less than five percent.
