Newly established company uses AI to pinpoint breast cancer risk in young women

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used by a Nottingham company to help women identify their own risk of developing breast cancer.

MyBOOBRisk has created a ‘pioneering’ online breast cancer risk web application which offers women between the ages of 20 and 53 a safe and reliable determination of their breast cancer risk in strict adherence to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

Launched during breast cancer awareness month, it will supposedly ‘inevitably revolutionise’ the way that breast cancer risk is calculated for younger women who are not eligible routinely for NHS breast screening.

“Early diagnosis is the holy grail of breast cancer treatment,” explained chief executive officer at MyBOOBRisk Robert Darbyshire, who has been working with a team of experts on the development of medical device software in the field of breast cancer for the past ten years.

He continued: “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.”

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK. One in seven UK women will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime.

In the UK, 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 then will 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.

Robert added: “Moreover, mammography is a much less effective screening tool for younger women, who are more likely to have dense breast tissue, compromising the efficiency of routine mammograms in this age group, even if they were available.

MyBOOBRisk is a set of proprietary AI algorithms built on an underlying clinically approved Cancer Research Horizons, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cancer Research UK, model that has been supplemented with an extensive set of new model parameters and epidemiological risk factors.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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