'Jolie Effect' Sees Rise In Pre-Cancer Breast Ops
The number of women having preventative double mastectomies has more than doubled, according to an NHS clinic.
Wednesday 25 November 2015 04:24, UK
An increasing number of women have sought preventative cancer surgery after Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie publicly announced she had a double mastectomy.
The star had been told that a faulty hereditary gene left her with an 87% risk of developing breast cancer and a 50% risk of developing ovarian cancer.
Women most at risk are those who carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic faults.
After opting to have a preventive double mastectomy, Jolie wrote in the New York Times: "I decided to be proactive and to minimise the risk as much as I could."
An NHS clinic in Manchester has since attributed a sharp rise in preventive double mastectomies to women being inspired by Jolie's announcement.
Between January 2011 and June 2014 there were 29 procedures carried out at the Genesis Prevention Centre. That rose to 83 between January 2014 and June 2015.
This increase has been dubbed the "Angelina Effect" by researchers.
Professor of clinical genetics at Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, Gareth Evans, said the rise in mastectomies started around nine months after Angelina spoke publicly.
He said: "While we haven't analysed women's motivations for undergoing this type of surgery, the correlation suggests that if the increased uptake of double mastectomies can be attributed to 'the Angelina effect', the effect has been prolonged and has resulted in both increased referrals to our clinic, and increased rates of preventative surgery."
Chairman of Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention, Lester Barr, said: "We're now confident that Aneglina's story will continue to raise awareness of the BRCA gene mutations and that this increased knowledge particularly among medium and high-risk women, will be passed onto the next generation."
Samia al Qadhi, chief executive of Breast Cancer Care, said: "Angelina's courage in sharing her experiences has highlighted this incredibly important issue.
"The percentage of women ringing our help line to ask questions about family history and breast cancer increased five-fold after she made her announcement."