Angelina Jolie’s Decision for Double Mastectomy

Surely, you’ve heard by now that superstar actress Angelina Jolie has undergone a double mastectomy procedure. Her reasoning was clear: “I have always told them not to worry, but the truth is I carry a ‘faulty’ gene.”

The Oscar-winning actress said her doctors estimated that she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.

“Once I knew this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much as I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy,” she said.

Support from Her Family

Her partner and fellow celebrity actor, Brad Pitt, has been by her side through the entire journey. “Having witnessed this decision firsthand, I find Angie’s choice, as well as so many others like her, absolutely heroic,” Pitt told the press.

“All I want is for her to have a long and healthy life, with myself and our children. This is a happy day for our family.”

Angelina Jolie’s Mission for Awareness About BRCA

Angelina has been in the public eye for years and has opened up to the world about her procedure in hopes of inspiring other women to have the strength and courage to be able to make the hard decisions for their health and for their families that love them.

“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. It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested.”

Other Women Share in Her Journey

She isn’t alone in her fight. Breast cancer kills about 458,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization. It is estimated that one in 300 to one in 500 women carry a BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene mutation, as Jolie does.

Other celebrities such as rocker wife Sharon Osbourne and CNN anchor Zoraida Sambolin have also been open about their journey through breast cancer. Osbourne also underwent a precautionary double mastectomy in 2012 because she carried genes that put her at higher risk for breast cancer.

Hope for Women with Breast Cancer

So what can be done when breast cancer or the breast cancer gene looks a woman straight in the eyes? What can be done to treat the problem and yet still preserve her breasts so she can still feel like herself after all is said and done? There have been many grief-stricken fans of Angelina despairing at the thought of how this can possibly be accomplished.

That’s where autologous fat transfer comes in.

This revolutionary process offers layered fat transfer, or fat grafting done in stages, along with the help of liposuction at a plastic surgeon’s office and ATGRAFT adipose tissue storage. This powerful process can be the bridge from devastation to reclamation when it comes to what cancer can take away.

By providing this reliable platform to store adipose tissue, the breasts can be reconstructed using the patient’s own fat which also contain adult stem cells. It’s a brilliant stride not only for regenerative biology and medicine, but also a brilliant step toward a better quality of life for breast cancer and breast cancer gene survivors.

The greatest opportunity for women using their own fat to restore their breasts is the elimination of all artificial substances from the process. No silicone, no saline.

How to Get Started With Storing Your Fat Today

It all starts with a call to American CryoStem or to your plastic surgeon. Using your own body fat, it is processed and purified, then cryogenically stored. Our ATGRAFT program provides bio-insurance through the storage of adipose tissue for future use in cosmetic (breast reconstruction after mastectomy, for example) or regenerative medicine applications. With adipose tissue storage, a natural breast reconstruction can mean the difference between losing both breasts or remaining intact.

When some people think of a double mastectomy, they wonder how a woman is going to live her life without her breasts. They may wonder how a woman is going to deal with the possibility of artificial implants as the only remainder of her body before cancer, but there is more hope than that.

Storing adipose tissue can open the door to breast reconstruction through completely natural means. By having fat in the bank, the possibility of stem cell treatment and fat transfers become realities.

Today is the youngest your cells will ever be! Call us to find out more about how you can get started with ATGRAFT tissue storage, stem cell storage costs, and how to find a plastic surgeon provider in your area.

Blog post written by John DiFolco.

Sources:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-angelina-jolie-mastectomy-20130514,0,62264.story

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/health/sambolin-double-mastectomy/index.html