There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women having both breasts removed to prevent cancer since Angelina Jolie revealed her own surgery in May 2013.
The actress underwent a double mastectomy in 2013, after she discovered she carried a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, which raises the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer.
The star’s own mother died of breast cancer.
Now experts have said that the number of women adopting the preventative procedure has nearly trebled since the actress addressed her own health concerns so publicly.
Dubbed the ‘Angelina effect’, medics at the Genesis Prevention Centre Family History clinic revealed in a letter published in the journal Breast Cancer Research that between January 2014 and January 2015, 83 procedures were performed. This was compared to just 29 operations between January 2011 and June 2012.
Commenting on the increase in awareness and preventative actions, researchers added:
“Although the main impact of the Angelina effect was from June to November 2013, this trend continued through 2014 with increased referrals from 201 in January-June 2012 to 388 in January to June 2014, and rising by 366 for the last six months, to give a total of 754 for 2014.
“Women attending for risk assessment and discussions concerning bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy, unprompted, still mention the effects of Angelina Jolie on their attendance anecdotally to clinic physicians and still reflect on the impact of her speaking publicly in their pre-surgery consultations with the clinical psychologist in 2015.”
