[DanBC]

> Hell, didn't Angelina Jolie have a prophylactic double mastectomy?

I really hope she had more information than a 23andme result.

As I understand it she has a strong family history, and the mutated gene. Prophylactic surgery can reduce risk in those cases.

Most people don't understand what "risk reduction means" so I hope she had doctors who were able to explain it to her.

This website http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/risk-re... describes it as a 95% reduction in risk.

Very very few people are going to understand what that means for them. Gerd Gigerenzer has a book that's a useful discussion of why presenting risks as percentages is bad.

http://www.amazon.com/Reckoning-Risk-Learning-Live-Uncertain...

And here's an example from the book http://imgur.com/zO4zkl4