A Nottingham company has developed an app that can help women find out the probability of getting breast cancer.
MyBOOBRisk uses AI to help women between the ages of 20 and 53 determine their breast cancer risk in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.
The developers hope the private, paid-for service will go some way to changing the way that risk is calculated for younger women who are not routinely eligible for NHS breast screening.
The service’s chief executive Robert Darbyshire said: “Early diagnosis is the holy grail of breast cancer treatment.
“MyBOOBRisk uses clinically validated state-of-the-art statistical modelling, computational analysis, and AI, incorporating the major risk factors and additional influences that can affect a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer at an early age.
“Identifying high-risk women under the eligible age of NHS breast screening will significantly improve their chances of survival should they subsequently be diagnosed with breast cancer.
“We hope that MyBOOBRisk will raise awareness amongst younger women of the importance of knowing your breast cancer risk and ultimately save lives in the future.”
He said breast cancer was the most common cancer in the Ƶ – with one in seven Ƶ women diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime.
In the Ƶ, under the NHS Breast Screening Programme, eligible women will usually receive their first routine invitation for breast cancer screening between the ages of 50 and 53, and will then normally be invited every three years until they are 70 or 71. However, around 20 per cent of all breast cancers are diagnosed in women under the age of 50.
Mr Darbyshire said mammography was also less effective in screening younger women, who are more likely to have dense breast tissue.
MyBOOBRisk’s AI algorithms use models drawn up by Cancer Research Horizons. The company says the more women that use the app, the more accurate the risk model will become in the future.
It uses a detailed questionnaire to help identify high risk women, with a summary report generated highlighting the reasons why, which can be shared with her GP.
Mr Darbyshire said: “We know that some women have a higher risk of developing breast cancer because other members of their family have had ovarian or breast cancer.
“Having a parent, sibling, or offspring diagnosed with breast cancer can greatly increase an individual's risk of developing the disease.
“This risk is even higher when close relatives have, or develop, breast cancer under the age of 50.
“Occasionally, families have a faulty gene, such as Breast Cancer (BRCA) 1 and 2, which may be passed down from generation to generation or start in the most immediate of family members, including the individual.
“Certain factors increase the risk of breast cancer too, including increasing age, harmful use of alcohol, early radiation exposure, reproduction (for instance, the age at which menstrual periods begin and age at first live pregnancy), smoking, oral contraceptive use, and hormone replacement therapy.
“MyBOOBRisk is a detailed questionnaire-based profiler covering topics such as general and personal information, medical conditions, family history, and genetic preconditioning, which subsequently calculates a 10-year and lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.
“This allows the identification of average, moderate, and high-risk women in strict adherence to the NICE guidelines. Individual BRCA1, 2 mutation carrier probabilities are also calculated to ascertain the likelihood of a gene mutation.”
For an annual fee, at an introductory offer of £29, MyBOOBRisk includes an online in-depth risk profile as well as a risk level and a lifestyle action plan.
