ArticleScientific reports2021
The Angelina Jolie effect: Contralateral risk-reducing mastectomy trends in patients at increased risk of breast cancer.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Media Listening to Understand the Lived Experience of Individuals in Europe With Metastatic Breast Cancer: A Systematic Search and Content Analysis Study.Frontiers in oncology · 2022Pooled it
- Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomy in Women with Unilateral Breast Cancer by Age, Race, and Tumor Subtype.Annals of surgical oncology · 2026Article
- When Covering and Discovering Are at Odds: How the Logic of US Health Insurance Undercuts the Promise and Equity of Precision Medicine for People with Hereditary Cancer Risks.Journal of health politics, policy and law · 2026Article
- Trends in breast reconstruction for BRCA1/2, PALB2 and other high penetrance germline pathogenic variant carriers undergoing risk reducing mastectomy.Familial cancer · 2026Article
- Risk of Breast and Ovarian Cancer After Prophylactic Mastectomy and Salpingo-Oophorectomy in BRCA1/2 Germline Variant Carriers: A Retrospective Cohort Study From a Single German Center.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Impact of bilateral surgery on time to treatment in patients with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy - a retrospective cohort study.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- The TESTBREAST journey: Revisiting the importance of early detection by frequent screening of women at high risk of breast cancer.International journal of cancer · 2025Article
- Disease cause attribution and preference for low versus high self-management treatments.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A Scoping Review of Primary Breast Cancer Risk Reduction Strategies in East and Southeast Asia.Cancers · 2025Review
- Review
- Breast Cancer Statistics in Korea, 2021.Journal of breast cancer · 2024Review
- Role of Breast Cancer Risk Estimation Models to Identify Women Eligible for Genetic Testing and Risk-Reducing Surgery.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Article
- Bilateral risk-reducing mastectomies in American culture.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2023Article
- Risk-reducing surgery for individuals with cancer-predisposing germline pathogenic variants and no personal cancer history: a review of current UK guidelines.British journal of cancer · 2023Review
- EBCC-13 manifesto: Balancing pros and cons for contralateral prophylactic mastectomy.European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990) · 2023Review
- Risk-Reducing Breast and Gynecological Surgery for BRCA Mutation Carriers: A Narrative Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Oncoplastic and reconstructive breast surgery.Frontiers in oncology · 2023Review
- Article
- Nationwide Trends in Contralateral Prophylactic Mastectomies: An Analysis of 55,060 Unilateral Breast Cancer Patients.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Contralateral risk-reducing mastectomy (CRRM) rates have tripled over the last 2 decades. Reasons for this are multi-factorial, with those harbouring a pathogenic variant in the BRCA1/2 gene having the greatest survival benefit. On May 14th, 2013, Angelina Jolie shared the news of her bilateral risk-reducing mastectomy (BRRM), on the basis of her BRCA1 pathogenic variant status. We evaluated the impact of this news on rates of CRRM in women with increased risk for developing breast cancer after being diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer. The prospective cohort study included all women with at least a moderate lifetime risk of developing breast cancer who attended our family history clinic (1987-2019) and were subsequently diagnosed with unilateral breast cancer. Rates of CRRM were then compared between patients diagnosed with breast cancer before and after Angelina Jolie's announcement (pre- vs. post-AJ). Of 386 breast cancer patients, with a mean age at diagnosis of 48 ± 8 years, 268 (69.4%) were diagnosed in the pre-AJ period, and 118 (30.6%) in the post-AJ period. Of these, 123 (31.9%) underwent CRRM, a median 42 (interquartile range: 11-54) days after the index cancer surgery. Rates of CRRM doubled following AJ's news, from 23.9% pre-AJ to 50.0% post AJ (p < 0.001). Rates of CRRM were found to decrease with increasing age at breast cancer (p < 0.001) and tumour TNM stage (p = 0.040), and to increase with the estimated lifetime risk of breast cancer (p < 0.001) and tumour grade (p = 0.015) on univariable analysis. After adjusting for these factors, the step-change increase in CRRM rates post-AJ remained significant (odds ratio: 9.61, p < 0.001). The AJ effect appears to have been associated with higher rates of CRRM amongst breast cancer patients with increased cancer risk. CRRM rates were highest amongst younger women and those with the highest lifetime risk profile. Clinicians need to be aware of how media news can impact on the delivery of cancer related services. Communicating objective assessment of risk is important when counselling women on the merits of risk-reducing surgery.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.