by KYW medical editor Dr. Brian McDonough

Actress Christina Applegate recently revealed she had both breasts removed to treat her breast cancer. Was that the right thing to do?

It's a question many people are asking: was Christina Applegate too aggressive in having a double mastectomy? After all, she had breast cancer restricted to one breast.

You have to understand she has the BRCA1 breast cancer gene in her family. Her mother has battled breast cancer. She has a greater risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. So what she is doing is having what we call a prophylactic mastectomy. In other words, trying to anticipate that breast cancer could occur in the other breast.

She is more or less taking the bull by the horns and doing the surgery now. What she's done is making a logical decision with all of the information and that is really what you want patients to do. To have the opportunity to take an active role in their own health care. 

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