Angelina Jolie took the brave step of removing her breasts after discovering she has a high risk of cancer, but it’s not for everyone and few in the UAE have had preventative surgery, said a leading oncologist in the UAE.
“Angelina Jolie had a risk of getting breast cancer in excess of 80 per cent over her lifetime, and also a high chance of ovarian cancer. So it was necessary to have had the mastectomy,” said Dr Houriya Kazim, medical director and specialist breast surgeon at Well Woman Clinic in Dubai, one of the few organisations that was prepared to discuss the topic on Tuesday. (Of the UAE’s breast cancer support groups, only the Safe and Sound campaign made themselves available to comment on this story, despite repeated requests.)
“If you knew you had that risk and you could reduce that risk by 80 or 90 per cent to almost nil, you would do it, especially if you’ve watched your mother die from cancer.”
“But we should be aware that the majority of breast cancers are what we call sporadic. Less than 10 per cent of cancer is because somebody is carrying a gene.”
Jolie had surgery in February after finding she carries the BRCA1 gene, which as she wrote in her article for the New York Times, “sharply increases my risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer”. Jolie’s mother, Marcheline, died of ovarian cancer in 2007, aged 56. In her article, Jolie raised the issue of the prohibitive cost of the test for the gene. “The breast cancer test is available in the UAE but it’s usually sent abroad for analysis,” said Kazim. “The lab I send the tests to charges around $5,000.”
Jolie’s move could encourage more women to get checked, said Abbasa Hameed, marketing support manager, BurJuman and organizer of the Safe&Sound campaign, which organises breast cancer awareness events in the UAE, including the annual pink walkathon,
“This news can be a big trigger. It just goes to show this can happen to anyone and so prompt people who don’t know to investigate and be careful. We get a lot of enquiries from women. Some want to know more, some tend to ignore -- that’s why it’s important to keep campaigning so that some time someone can take action”.
Hameed says she has not come across anyone who’s gone in for elective surgery. “We only have survivors who join us for the BurJuman fashion show as a celebration of their courage.”
Like Jolie, Gail Tyldsley, homemaker and mother of 19-year-old twins, underwent preventative surgery, although she suffered due to a botched surgery.
“I didn’t have cancer but I’ve had a major family history. My mother had breast cancer. I had a 90-95 per cent chance of getting it so had elective surgery in 2005. They reconstructed my breasts by taking muscles from my stomach.
“I was in the UK when I was diagnosed and advised mastectomy. I had the surgery in Muscat. However, my surgery went drastically wrong. I was under anaesthesia for over 14 hours and had so much scar tissue. When I look back, knowing all this, I would never get the surgery done. We did have a lot of emotional turmoil at home and my husband managed by pouring himself into his work, but he was with me in this 110 per cent from the beginning to this moment.”
Frida Lobo, a working mother of two, elected to have both breasts removed after finding cancer. She is now undergoing the third cycle of oral chemotherapy after a recurrence.
“I found a lump in my left breast in 2011 and immediately contacted a gynaecologist. We found it wasn’t just metastatic but had reached to my bone. At the time of the surgery in September 2011, I opted to have the other breast removed too. Reconstruction was done at the same time. What’s helped me is that my very positive approach to life. My husband is more of the worry wort, but I know I’ve come out of this once, I can do it again.”
