Angelina Jolie‘s double mastectomy “has already begun to save lives,” the mega-star’s plastic surgeon says, speaking out for the first time since the Oscar winner revealed her procedure five months ago.
“I’m seeing in my practice already women who are saying, ‘I was inspired by that to get gene testing,'” said Dr. Jay Orringer, the Beverly Hills surgeon who performed Jolie’s reconstruction, in an exclusive interview with the Daily News. “I think it’s going to have a tremendously lasting impact.”
The mom of six — Hollywood’s highest paid actress and a United Nations humanitarian — announced in May that she had endured three months of procedures to have both breasts removed because of her high genetic risk of breast cancer.
“My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent,” Jolie wrote in a surprise op-ed published in The New York Times that applauded partner Brad Pitt’s support. “I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”
“I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer,” she continued. “It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options.”
Jolie’s “brave, benevolent” decision to share her journey means that other women are more educated than ever about their own mastectomy and reconstruction options, Orringer said.
Another positive development: as of the last decade, doctors increasingly work in teams to help women navigate the growing range of treatment and reconstruction choices, he said.
“It’s an initially daunting task to hear the many options — one mastectomy, two mastectomies; reconstruction options including round implants, shaped implants, the use of one’s own tissues — but I see the team approach as the patient being the captain and we as health care providers are members of that team helping her to arrive at a decision with which she’s most comfortable,” Orringer said.
That education is empowering, said Orringer, who will speak to colleagues Wednesday in Florida as part of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ Breast Reconstruction Awareness (BRA) Day.
“Even a patient who decides that she desires to have breast conservation (instead of a mastectomy) needs to understand the pros and cons,” Orringer said. “For example when radiation is given as part of breast conservation, there is damage to the chest wall that is permanent in nature. That could have very significant implications on the quality of future reconstruction should it be needed (if the cancer returns).
“So in making the decision on which way she wishes to go, in terms of breast conservation versus standard mastectomy or nipple-sparing mastectomy, the consultation early on with a plastic surgeon is very valuable.”
Jolie’s choice was familiar to Mary Byrnes, another of Orringer’s patients, who was initially “scared to death” by the prospect of reconstructive surgery.
Byrnes, 60, of Los Angeles, was diagnosed with cancer in one breast in 2010 and decided to have both breasts removed.
“I really didn’t want to do (a reconstruction). I just thought I’d remove the breasts and I’d be fine,” she told the Daily News. “I was so anxious for the cancer to be gone and just wanted it to be over.”
But Orringer “just listened to me and really paid attention to what I wanted,” she said. “It totally changed my mind.”
“I think the biggest surprise to me was how incredible I looked afterwards,” she continued. “I don’t think I ever believed that I’d be back to normal. I look in the mirror and I don’t even know I had cancer.”
Jolie has moved on, too, despite the rocky start to her year. She’s currently working on directing “Unbroken,” a film based on the life of Louis Zamperini, 96, a former Olympic runner and World War II Air Force veteran who survived a plane crash, 47 days adrift in a lifeboat and years as a prisoner of war. The film is scheduled for a Dec. 25, 2014 release.
