Breast cancer risk assessment tools could be lifesaving

TAMPA, Fla. - Actress Olivia Munn revealed her battle with breast cancer last week and says a tool her doctors used helped save her life.

Munn says she caught the aggressive form of breast cancer early in 2023 after her doctors checked her "breast cancer risk assessment score."

Olivia Munn revealed her battle with breast cancer last week.

What is the Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool (BCRAT)?

BCRAT, also known as The Gail Model, helps doctors estimate a patient's risk of developing invasive breast cancer over the next five years and up to age 90 (lifetime risk).

"The tool uses a woman's personal medical and reproductive history and the history of breast cancer among her first-degree relatives (mother, sisters, daughters) to estimate absolute breast cancer risk-her chance or probability of developing invasive breast cancer in a defined age interval," according to the National Cancer Institute's website.

This calculator only takes about five minutes to finish. However, experts say the tool cannot accurately estimate breast cancer risk for all women due to differing health histories, nationalities, and race.

What is the Tyrer-Cuzick Risk Assessment Calculator?

The Tyrer-Cuzick Risk Assessment Calculator is another tool doctors use to determine the possibility of developing breast cancer. 

This free calculator displays a 10-year risk and lifetime risk score.

RELATED: Olivia Munn diagnosed with breast cancer

Figures show about one in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Dr. Victoria Rizk, a Breast Medical Oncologist at TGH Cancer Institute, supports using either calculator to help estimate a patient's risk.

For more information about BCRAT (The Gail Model), click here.

For more information about The Tyrer-Cuzick Risk Assessment Calculator, click here.

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