Free app and website collate information from global databases to help in breast cancer decisions

A free website and app will help guide breast cancer patients and their doctors make important treatment decisions such as breast and ovary removal.

A FREE website and mobile phone app will give patients and their doctors up-to-date information on the two most common breast cancer genes, helping guide difficult decisions on issues such as breast and ovary removal.

The website and app collate information from databases worldwide on tens of thousands of variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes and how likely they are to cause cancer.

The diet that could reduce risk of breast cancer

Women face long wait or crippling cost for surgery

Cancer scientist Amanda Spurdle, of the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, said some variants in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes increased a person’s risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers, while others were harmless.

“The effect of many variants is still unknown,” Associate Professor Spurdle said.

Patients and doctors will have access to the latest information. Picture: iStock

She said that, until the development of the BRCA Exchange website and app, information about BRCA variants had been contained in many databases with no single, authoritative resource to guide doctors, genetic counsellors and their patients.

“The BRCA Exchange brings together the most up-to-date information and analysis from experts and researchers worldwide and makes it available to everyone for free,” Prof Spurdle said.

Variants are broadly defined as being “pathogenic, not pathogenic or uncertain”.

Although Prof Spurdle warned the web and app were not 100 per cent definitive, given other factors contribute to cancer risk, it gave important information to guide doctors and their patients on issues such as preventive breast and ovary removal to reduce cancer risk.

To access the website: brcaexchange.org