The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) have reported an anticipated shortage of CLIMARA 50 mcg transdermal patches with supply due to return on 31 July 2018.

A new web-based tool is available at https://www.petermac.org/iprevent to help women understand their personal breast cancer risk and then act on it. It is designed to be used collaboratively by women and their doctors. Women can use it at home, print the output, and bring it to a consultation for discussion.

AMS has been given permision to link to the tool from our Self Assessment Tools  Are you at risk of cancer? page on breast cancer.

How Does iPrevent Work?

iPrevent asks women to first enter their family cancer history, lifestyle and reproductive risk factor information. Using that information, it then provides 10 year and residual life-time risk estimates; there are options to view these as pictograms or graphs. It then provides tailored estimates of the absolute risk reductions for relevant breast cancer prevention strategies, personalised lifestyle change suggestions, and tailored advice on breast cancer screening. Women can print out a summary to take to a medical consultation for discussion, and so the doctor can incorporate it into the woman’s medical record.

What is the Evidence Base for iPrevent?

iPrevent uses the well-validated IBIS and BOADICEA algorithms to estimate each woman’s personal risk of breast cancer. An international prospective validation study, conducted using data on over 16,000 women, has confirmed the accuracy of the risk estimates provided. It uses Cancer Australia guidelines to determine which risk management options women are advised about, based on their risk level. An Australian pilot study of women and clinicians has also demonstrated that iPrevent has high usability and acceptability, and suggested that it improves knowledge without increasing anxiety. More detail on iPrevent peer-reviewed publications can be found by clicking the “Information For Clinicians” button on the iPrevent front page.