Angelina Jolie tested for one gene, what about the other 20,000?

The world reacted with shock as Angelina Jolie, Hollywood actress, UN Ambassador and world renowned beauty announced in the New York Times that she had undergone a ‘cancer risk reducing’ mastectomy to decrease her chances of developing breast cancer. She had previously had genetic testing that had revealed she was a BRCA1 (Breast Cancer Gene 1) gene fault carrier and thus has a significantly increased risk of developing both breast and ovarian cancer. The testing was initiated because her own mother had died of ovarian cancer (ovarian and breast cancer are both linked to the BRCA1 gene). The most effective way to reduce this risk is to remove the tissues that can become cancerous, i.e. the breasts and ovaries.