Angelina Jolie’s decision to undergo a double mastectomy has been largely lauded as courageous and even “absolutely heroic” by her fiancé Brad Pitt.
However, breast cancer survivor Melissa Etheridge called Jolie’s preventive operation “the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer.”
Etheridge told the Washington Blade that she has the same BRCA gene mutation, but commented that the Oscar-winner’s decision was “not something I could believe in for myself.”
“I wouldn’t call it the brave choice,” the 52-year-old rocker said. “I actually think it’s the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer.”
She continued, “My belief is that cancer comes from inside you and so much of it has to do with the environment of your body. It’s the stress that will turn that gene on or not.”
Etheridge noted that surgical removal of breasts should be one of the last choices after considering other options.
“Plenty of people have the gene mutation and everything but it never comes to cancer,” she explained to the DC-based LGBT newspaper. “I would say to anybody faced with that, that choice is way down the line on the spectrum of what you can do and to really consider the advancements we’ve made in things like nutrition and stress levels.”
Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and has been cancer free for nine years. She has been heavily involved in cancer research advocacy.
Jolie said in her May 14 New York Times editorial that the decision to have a mastectomy was a personal one.
“I want to encourage every woman, especially if you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, to seek out the information and medical experts who can help you through this aspect of your life, and to make your own informed choices,” she wrote.
Pitt, meanwhile, has spoken briefly about Etheridge’s interview. The actor, who’s promoting his zombie flick “World War Z” in New York City, told Us Magazine, “Melissa’s an old friend of mine,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll talk on the phone. I don’t know what it is.”
Pitt invited Etheridge to perform at his 2000 wedding to Jennifer Aniston.