Angelina Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy after doctors estimated she had an 87% chance of developing breast cancer. How was that figure calculated and how does it differ from other women's risk of getting the disease?
Jolie's chances of developing breast cancer were so high because she inherited a mutated BRCA 1 gene from her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56.
The BRCA1 is present in everyone but only mutates in one in 1,000 people. Anyone with the mutation has a 50-80% chance of developing breast cancer.
But Jolie's risk figure was calculated to be even higher because of other factors, including family history.
"There are various computer programmes where you can input genetic information, family history and other things and it will calculate a figure, which is why she's got this very precise sounding number," says Dr Kat Arney, a senior science manager at Cancer Research UK.
It is already "the top cancer in women both in the developed and the developing world", according to the World Health Organization - and in many countries, it's becoming more common.
Incidence increased in the UK by 90% between 1971 and 2010. It is also on the rise in the developing world.
This is partly explained by the fact that people are living longer and cancer is generally a disease that affects people in later life.
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