A new researcher has found a new online calculator that can help Dr to predict if a woman will develop breast cancer within the next five and 10 years.
The tool can estimates a person's risk based on age, race and ethnicity, family history, whether or not they have had a breast biopsy in the past, and breast density.
Researchers behind the test hope it will enable doctors to identify those patients at highest risk of the disease.
READ MORE & SEE THE CALCULATOR BELOW
Dr Charlotte Gard, from the New Mexico State University and a consultant at the National Cancer Institute-funded Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC), said: 'Our tool is unique in that it combines both breast density and biopsy results.
'It's the only risk assessment tool that includes BI-RADS (Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System) breast density, which is the breast density that's used in clinical practice.'
Growing up, Dr Gard was acutely aware that she descends from a long line of women who developed breast cancer.
She expected her mother to be diagnosed, like her grandmother before her.
And it was this that inspired her to contribute to the research that would help in the fight against the disease, which claims 40,000 women in the US every year.
Rather than engaging in that fight from behind the doors of a biological laboratory, Dr Gard uses her expertise in statistical analysis to drive the fight.
Dr Gard played a key role in the development of the online calculator, which allows women and doctors the chance to more accurately assess their risk.
This in turn, helps specialists make informed decisions about preventative health care.
The BCSC worked with researchers from the University of California-San Francisco, UC-Davis, Group Health Research Institute and the Mayo Clinic, to devise the tool.
Dr Gard said when a woman has a mammogram, her radiologist will assign a breast density measure of 'a', 'b', 'c', or 'd' - where 'a' indicates mostly fatty tissue and 'd' indicates extremely dense tissue.
Numerous studies that have shown that women who have dense breasts are at higher risk for developing breast cancer.
By including this breast density information along with benign biopsy results, the calculator helps paint a clearer picture of a woman's risk compared to other women of her age, race and ethnicity.
Currently in the US, 24 states require that women undergoing mammography who have breast density of 'c' or 'd' be notified of their breast density.
New Mexico is not among them, Dr Gard said, but federal legislation to make that a nationwide requirement is under consideration.
This means more women will be receiving information about breast density in their mammography reports and talking with their doctors about how density impacts their risk.
We're hoping that having this tool available will be helpful to physicians and women when these discussions start taking place,' Dr Gard said.
New Mexico Department of Health spokesman David Morgan said any new tool that may help doctors and patients evaluate risk is a welcome addition.
'Every person should be armed with as much information as possible when they make decisions -- with their doctors -- about their health care,' he said.
A research paper on the new risk assessment model was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Dr Gard is also conducting research on the misclassification of breast density by radiologists.
'I'm interested in understanding how radiologists differ from each other in their interpretation of density, and how this could impact breast density reporting to women,' she said.
'There is a lot of variability from radiologist to radiologist, and you could create a false sense of security or you could alarm women unnecessarily when reporting based on a single density measurement.'
She's exploring how characteristics like a radiologist's experience level or training might impact the variability.
'If we can identify factors that can predict their variability, we could potentially intervene with some kind of training,' Dr Gard said.
Both of these areas of research aim to help women obtain more accurate information about their risk and understand the potential implications of that risk, she said.
'I think it's important that women can understand their risk of developing breast cancer, especially as women become more informed about their breast density,' Dr Gard said.
'The concern is that women are going to be informed of their breast density and they're not going to know what to do with that information.
'So here's something that we can give them that's geared toward helping them better understand their risk and, with their physicians, determine what the best next steps are for them.
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