Áine Gorman, Michael Sugrue, Zuhair Ahmed, Alison Johnston

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Donegal Clinical and Research Academy, Breast Centre North West, Letterkenny Hospital, Donegal, Ireland.
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Abstract: Introduction: Rapid and appropriate family risk assessment and triage of patients are essential for patients presenting to a symptomatic breast unit and international criteria for review are well established. Family History Risk Assessment Software (FaHRAS) is a computerized program, involving different modalities of risk assessment, which is available but has not been widely assessed. Aims: This study evaluated the FaHRAS software scoring of family history risk. Its analysis was compared to multi-tool family history risk assessment models in a cohort of 353 patients on a historic family history waiting list. Methods: A recent published pilot study assessed and categorized family history risk in 353 patients on a historic family history waiting list, according to international guidelines including NICE criteria, Gail and IBIS risk estimates. The current study involved a reassessment of all 353 patients using the FaHRAS software program to determine its accuracy and ease of use. Patient demographics and time required to perform the analysis were documented. Results: FaHRAS identified 73 (20.7%) patients had an IBIS family history score of 17% or greater and 89 (25.2%) patients met the NICE guidelines criteria for management beyond primary care. In the previous study, this was 79 (22.4%) and 112 (31.7%) respectively. Using the largest denominator (NICE guidelines), 264/353 (74.8%) patients could be discharged to primary care using FaHRAS. Using this largest denominator, FaHRAS also identified a total of 28 (7.9%) patients requiring referral to tertiary care while the previous study identified 3 (0.8%). Conclusion: This is one of the first studies to validate FaHRAS, which is accurate and easy to use. FaHRAS system can enable clinicians to become more efficient gatekeepers to genetic services.

Keywords: Breast Cancer, Risk Assessment, Family History

Cite this paper: Gorman, Á. , Sugrue, M. , Ahmed, Z. and Johnston, A. (2014) An Evaluation of FaHRAS Computer Programmes’ Utility in Family History Triage of Breast Cancer. Advances in Breast Cancer Research, 3, 17-21. doi: 10.4236/abcr.2014.32004.

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