Jolie's mastectomy puts spotlight on African breast cancer sufferers

In disclosing in the New York Times on Tuesday that she underwent a double mastectomy, actress Angelina Jolie also called attention to the many women in Africa and other developing regions who die from breast cancer each year.

Jolie underwent the double mastectomy, and subsequent breast reconstruction, earlier this year after discovering that she carried a "faulty" gene, BRCA1, which sharply increases her risk of developing certain kinds of cancer.

"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman," Jolie wrote in Tuesday's op-ed. Her mother died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, comprising 16 percent of all female cancers, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and rates are expected to rise steeply in the next 20 years.

"Some of this rise is due to better detection and more women having access to mammography," said Florence Williams, author of "Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History," a 2012 New York Times Notable Book. "Some of the rise is also due to environmental and lifestyle factors, such as women having children later in life, which increases your risk, and women taking drugs such as hormone replacement therapy."

About 69 percent of all breast cancer deaths occur in developing countries where the majority of cases are diagnosed in late stages, WHO says.

Jolie discovered her risk after undergoing genetic testing, which costs more than U.S.$3,000 in the United States. "It has got to be a priority to ensure that more women can access gene testing and lifesaving preventive treatment, whatever their means and background, wherever they live," Jolie wrote.