Etheridge Disagrees with Jolie Mastectomy

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Singer Melissa Etheridge, herself a breast cancer survivor, says that she feels "a little differently" about Angelina Jolie's overwhelmingly positively-received news that she decided to undergo a preventative double mastectomy.

"I have that gene mutation too and it’s not something I would believe in for myself. I wouldn't call it the brave choice," Etheridge candidly tells the Washington Blade. "I actually think it's the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer."

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She goes on to state her belief that cancer "comes from inside you," the "environment of your body" and that "it's the stress" that determines whether the gene will turn into cancer or not.

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"Plenty of people have the gene mutation and everything but it never comes to cancer so 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," she says about the decision to undergo a mastectomy. "I've been cancer free for nine years now and looking back, I completely understand why I got cancer. There was so much acidity in everything. I really encourage people to go a lot longer and further before coming to that conclusion."