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Angelina Jolie effect appears to have long-term impact on prophylactic mastectomy use
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More women with BRCA1 mutations are inquiring about and undergoing double prophylactic mastectomies since Angelina Jolie publicly announced that she had the preventive procedure in May 2013, according to a letter written in Breast Cancer Research.
D. Gareth Evans, MD, FCRP, professor of medical genetics and epidemiology at University of Manchester in the U.K. and at the Genesis Prevention Centre Family History clinic, and colleagues followed up on previously published research that identified a 2.5-fold increase in the amount of referrals for a bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy among British women with a family history of breast cancer in first the 4 months following Jolie’s announcement.
“Although many celebrities and other famous women have developed breast cancer or undertaken risk reducing mastectomy, none to date has had the immediate nor lasting impact of Angelina Jolie,” Evans told HemOnc Today. “Her iconic status coupled with her beauty and partnership with a massively popular actor who supported her action made a compelling statement.”
Because it takes around 9 to 12 months from the initial referral until the actual surgery takes place, the investigators sought to see if the trend continued 6 to 24 months later.
Researchers evaluated data from Genesis, which covers a population of approximately 5 million.
The number of women with BRCA1/2 mutations who underwent preventative double mastectomy increased from 17 between January 2011 and June 2012 to 31 from January 2014 through June 2015. Further, the number of procedures performed in high-risk women without the mutations increased from 12 to 52 in the same period.
The researchers considered the overall increase — or from 29 procedures performed among BRCA1/2-mutation positive and high-risk women to 83 procedures — significant (P < .0001).
The increase in referrals also has been sustained. The number of referrals rose from 201 between January to June 2012 to 388 between January to June 2014. There were a total of 754 referrals in 2014.
“The fact that Angelina Jolie could have surgery, look so great after and for it not to affect her relationship nor her ability to work galvanized women at family risk for breast cancer,” Evans said. “Risk-reducing surgery was no longer a stigma and Jolie’s courage to come forward gave many women similar courage to have surgery themselves.”
The researchers acknowledged these findings were not peer reviewed and are missing identifiable data since it was an audit of clinical service. – by Anthony SanFilippo
For more information:
D. Gareth Evans, MD, FCRP, can be reached at gareth.evans@cmft.nhs.uk.
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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