Source : http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/14/showbiz/angelina-jolie-double-mastectomy

Actress Angelina Jolie announced in a
New York Times op-ed article on Tuesday that she
underwent a preventive double mastectomy after
learning she carries the BRCA1 gene, which
sharply increases her risk of developing breast
cancer and ovarian cancer.
"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent
risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of
ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in
the case of each woman," Jolie wrote. "Once I
knew that this was my reality, I decided to be
proactive and to minimize the risk as much I
could. I made a decision to have a preventive
double mastectomy."
Jolie's mother Marcheline Bertrand died of breast
cancer in 2007 at the age of 56.