Filmmaker and actress Angelina Jolie revealed on Tuesday in the New York Times that she had undergone a surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes to prevent ovarian cancer. About two years ago, the 39-year-old actress had announced that she had underwent double mastectomy to prevent breast cancer. At that time, the 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith' star had cited her elevated risk of contracting the disease.

A number of health experts and oncologists praised Jolie's decision to bring many sensitive issues into the public discussion, but it also raised concerns about the difficult decision-making process faced by a woman at risk of ovarian cancer.

While talking about how common ovarian cancer is, Richard Wender, chief cancer control officer at the American Cancer Society, said more than 20,000 women are supposed to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2015, and about 14,000 could die during that time. According to Jamie Bakkum-Gamez, a gynecologic oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, about one in 80 women could develop ovarian cancer. The length of a woman's survival depends on the stage when the cancer in found.

According to reports, the American actress is at much higher risk as she carries a mutation of the BRCA1 gene that gives Jolie about 87% chances of developing breast cancer and about 50% chances of developing ovarian cancer. In addition, Jolie's mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 49. It means that the actress has a history of women dying of cancer.

Wender said, "It's believed that less than 1 percent of American women carry the BRCA gene, but there have been no good population studies in the United States". As there is no reliable screening of ovarian cancer, a patient comes to about ovarian cancers in the later stages of tumor's progress. This could be the reason Jolie removed her ovaries.