A Guide To Not Saying Dumb Things About Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy
Angelina Jolie Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons A refresher in genetic mutations, breast cancer risk and the perils of overawareness Angelina Jolie's announcement in Tuesday's New York Times that she has undergone a preventative double mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer as a carrier of a BRCA gene mutation has garnered praise, sparked debates over genetic testing, and of course, encouraged people to say stupid things on Twitter. But what does the science say? How does Jolie's experience echo that of other women? And what does it reveal about the state of modern medicine? Here are your most pressing questions answered. What are BRCA mutations? Everyone has BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, tumor suppressors that produce a protein to repair DNA. In some people, one of those genes develops a mutation that increases their risk of getting breast cancer by a large margin. Women with a BRCA mutation can have...