Each year more than 1200 Australian women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The main risk factor for ovarian cancer is getting older. Over 80 per cent of women diagnosed are over 50 years of age but ovarian cancer can occur at any age. 

Ovarian cancer can be difficult to diagnose at an early stage, largely because symptoms can be vague and similar to those of other common illnesses. 

But most women diagnosed with the disease experience symptoms, it is simply that they do not link them to cancer.

One of the most important advances in osteoporosis management of the past decade has been the advent of fracture risk assessment algorithms. Today, rather than relying on bone mineral density values alone, doctors use tools such as FRAX, a widely available calculator, to help identify patients in need of treatment.

A new position paper by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) Epidemiology and Quality of Life Working Group has assessed the uptake of FRAX worldwide. The study concludes that there were approximately 2.3 million FRAX calculations during a one-year period beginning in May 2012, with enormous variation in worldwide usage.

What is FRAX?

FRAX (WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool) calculates an individual's 10-year probability of a major osteoporotic fracture based on clinical risk factors. It integrates the weight of clinical risk factors for fracture and mortality risk, with or without information on bone mineral density (BMD) values. Each calculator is country specific, calibrated to the national epidemiology of fracture and mortality.

Now with specific models for 53 countries, FRAX is widely used by physicians around the world to help assess their patients' fracture risk in the course of a clinical assessment. The use of the tool improves risk assessment compared to the use of BMD alone, allowing physicians to make more informed treatment decisions.