Angelina Jolie’s Double Mastectomy

Angelina Jolie stunned women worldwide, sharing news that she had a double mastectomy in an offensive move against eventual probability of breast cancer.  1. Actress and magnificent humanitarian, mother, lover and partner Angelina Jolie revealed that she had a double mastectomy earlier this year after learning that she carries a defective version of a gene called BRCA1. The gene defect, and another called BRCA2 are rare, causing only 5-10% of breast cancers and 10-15% of ovarian cancers among white women in America, writes the New York Times.

Women who carry the gene mutations have, on average, about a 65% risk of developing breast cancer, compared to a 12% risk among most women. Writing an Op Ed for the Times today, Jolie said that the probability in her case was 87%.

The actress also faces a 50% chance of contracting ovarian cancer. Jolie’s process began on Feb. 2 with a “nipple delay”, which she explains in detail. Surprisingly, days after her second operation to remove the breast tissue, Jolie writes that she was back to a normal life.

With major advancements in reconstructive surgery in recent years, Angelina Jolie says the results can be beautiful and only detected by small scars. Her story is tracked on the Pink Lotus Breast Center in Beverly Hills.

Genetist Mary-Claire King

2. Working in the sciences is notoriously challenging for women — men outnumber and out-earn them across the biological, life, physical and social sciences. The story of geneticist Mary-Claire King, who won the 2013 €100,000 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, confirms the difficulty women have being taken in science — even when they are correct in their research hypothesis.

Mary-Claire King is American Cancer Society Professor in the Department of Genome Sciences and Medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle. In awarding her price, Goethe University Frankfurt wrote: