Alessandro Palombo’s ‘Love Yourself’ mural, on display for World Breast Cancer Day, depicts Angelina Jolie from an imaginary post-mastectomy (Milan, May 22, 2023). Getty Images:
A genetic test carried out by an American actress in 2013, which led to a preventive double mastectomy, has come under fire again with a recent English-language study denouncing the approximate and alarmist research.
Angelina Jolie’s reaction. Ten years ago, in an article published in May 2013 New York Times The American actress publicly announced that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy (removal of both breasts) due to a genetic predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer. Through this speech, the star Malicious hoped to encourage women around the world to be screened for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are suspected of increasing the risk of developing cancer. If the message had the desired effect, increasing the peak of research requests in Great Britain and the United States, scientists are now condemning the so-called “Angelina Jolie” effect, blaming these tests, private and expensive, which leads to alarming overdiagnosis and sometimes. having harmful consequences.
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Risk revised downwards
A recent English study published on Thursday September 14 in the journal Eclinic medicine agrees with this and shows that even if a woman carries BRCA mutations, her risk is relatively low unless she has a close relative with the disease.
According to the National Cancer Institute, it is estimated that approximately 2 in 1,000 women carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation. “These two genes are involved in repairing the damage that DNA regularly undergoes. The presence of mutations in one of these two genes disrupts this function and greatly increases the risk of breast and ovarian cancer,” the public health organization describes on its website.
An 80% risk of developing breast cancer is very different from a 20% risk.
Dr Lee Jackson, Specialist in Genomic Medicine at the University of Exeter
For those affected, this risk ranges from 40 to 80% over a lifetime, according to studies, but may never develop into pathology. This shows the work done by the University of Exeter in England. Analyzing medical information from more than 454,000 people aged 40 to 69 from the UK Biobank, a biomedical database, the study shows that the reported risk of developing cancer at age 60 drops to 18% in those without the genes. family history of breast cancer. Having a close relative with the disease increases the risk by 24%.
“Learning that a person is at high genetic risk for a disease can really influence the level of fear of a particular condition and the actions to be taken accordingly. An 80% risk of developing breast cancer is very different from a 20% risk, Dr. Leigh Jackson, a genomic medicine specialist and lead author of the study, explained in a press release. This difference may influence the decision to seek invasive breast surgery.”
Do a medical examination before making any decision
Although Angelina Jolie checked all the boxes for above-average risk (a mother who died of ovarian cancer at 56 and a high mutation in the BRCA1 gene), Dr. Lee Jackson laments the spate of wild tests and calls them “useless.” preventive mastectomies that followed her testimony New York Times. Indeed, if the National Health Service in England offers this screening to relatives who carry the genetic mutation or have a strong family history of breast cancer, many worried women have rushed to get home DNA test kits or screenings. genetics in private laboratories at a cost of around £1,000 (€1,163).
Therefore, in the conclusions of his study, the health professional urges women to exercise great caution. “If you are told of a high genetic risk for a disease outside of a clinical context, we recommend that you speak to your doctor, who will be able to consider a number of factors, including family history, to assess whether the risk merits further investigation.
Source: Le Figaro
