Shocking Details About Angelina Jolie's Horrifying Cancer Scare

By Shayla Byrd | Mar 24, 2015 10:38 PM EDT

Angelina Jolie has revealed that she underwent surgery to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes after a horrifying cancer scare. She broke the news in an emotional op-ed piece that was published on March 24 in The New York Times.

She recounted the experience in detail.

After a blood test, her doctor informed her that she had a number of "inflammatory markers" that, taken together, "could be a sign of early cancer." So the actress took drastic preventative measures to ensure her safety and had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed.

She was treated by the same surgeon who cared for her mother Marcheline Bertrand, who died of ovarian cancer in 2007.

"I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt," mother-of-six Jolie wrote. "I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn't live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren."

Jolie's husband Brad Pitt was more than supportive of her decision.

"I called my husband in France, who was on a plane within hours. The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity. You know what you live for and what matters. It is polarizing, and it is peaceful."

This isn't the first time that Jolie has taken extreme preventive measures. In 2013, she underwent a double mastectomy, removing both breasts after first learning that she carried a gene that increased her risk of breast and ovarian 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 another The New York Times op-ed back in in 2013. "Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy."

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