The media and discussions these days are filled with the preventive double mastectomy of Angelina Jolie. Comments range from acclaim for her courage and consistency, shock about voluntary self-mutilation with dubious sense, up to the representation of the famous actress as a pawn and figurehead for corporations who make money on such measures.

In her own opinion, published in the New York Times [1], she describes the reasons for her decision: her mother had died after 10 years of battle with breast cancer at age 56 – therefore Jolie let her genes be tested, whereby mutation of the “breast cancer gene” BRCA1 was detected. Her physicians estimated her risk of developing breast cancer at 87%. Continue reading →