Importance of Breast Cancer Risk Assessment

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Importance of Breast Cancer Risk Assessment

breast cancer risk assessment

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancer women all over the world can develop. With the present technology and advancements we have today, it is impressively easier now to treat the early stages of this type of cancer. No more hearsays and myths like old breast implant materials might cause cancer, for instance. The goal for many oncologists and scientists now is to develop a way to detect the early onset of breast cancer. It is but important then to know that there is a breast cancer risk assessment tool that doctors and other health professionals can use to determine if their patient can be at risk to develop one.

How does the assessment tool work?

This tool measures the risk of you developing breast cancer in a span of 5 years until you reach 90 years old. It uses your overall health history, from your family history, gynecologic history, laboratory tests, scans, imaging, basically anything that may correlate to your body’s risk to develop cancer.

Is the tool accurate?

The breast cancer risk assessment tool is said to be reliable for all races – white, African American, Hispanic, Asian, or Pacific Islander. Although there are a few, like Indian Americans and Hispanic women born outside of the US, since these two have limited data available for the researchers who conceptualized the tool.

What are the limitations of the breast cancer tool?

breast cancer risk assessmentThe assessment cannot correctly assess women who are carriers of breast cancer-producing mutation BRCA-1 or 2 genes.  They also cannot determine if women with previous invasive or benign breast cancer can develop the disease again. The assessment tool may show you your percentage of risk in developing breast cancer, but it does not necessarily deem the accurate possibility of you developing one. The sole goal of this assessment tool is to know if you are at risk to have breast cancer. Understand that you may be at risk, but you may or may not develop breast cancer in this lifetime.

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