Many women overestimate
their risk of breast cancer and worry unnecessarily.
Conversely, some women believe that if there is no
family history of breast cancer, they are "in
the clear". over the years, various models have
been developed to more objectively assess a woman's
risk of breast cancer. The most widely used model
is the Gail model, which estimates
the probability that a woman with a given age and
risk factors will develop breast cancer in a given
time interval. Risk factors assessed in this model
include:
The model assesses short term (5 year)
and lifetime risk, and was derived from a large population
base study. Limitations of the model include that it
does not take into account the age of diagnosis of affected
relatives, the possibility of paternal inheritance,
or a history of ovarian cancer.
