Honing the health message on BRCA mutations.

Angelina Jolie’s announcement that she had undergone a double mastectomy to ward off potential tumors induced by her BRCA1 mutation served as what Kenneth Offit, MD, called a teachable moment. “Public figures can have seismic impacts on health communication when they speak about their own experiences,” said Offit, chief of the Clinical Genetics Service at the Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in New York. “Angelina Jolie’s disclosure was no exception.” After the actress revealed her surgery with a May 17 editorial in the New York Times, Offit and other well-known cancer specialists appeared on news outlets around the country, coalescing around several core themes: