The Breast and Ovarian Analysis of Disease Incidence and Carrier Estimation Algorithm (BOADICEA) is a computer program that is used to calculate the risks of breast and ovarian cancer in women based on their family history. It is also used to calculate the probability that they are carriers of cancer-associated mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. The latest version of BOADICEA (BWA v3) is described by Lee et al. (2013). You can run BOADICEA risk calculations using the BOADICEA Web Application. To access this program, all you need is a BOADICEA is a user account, which you can setup online in a minutes here. To date, more than 5000 healthcare professionals have registered to use BWA v3, based in more than 100 countries worldwide. In the United Kingdom, it is recommended as a risk assessment tool in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence clinical guideline CG164 and has been incorporated in the guidelines of several countries for the management of familial breast cancer. The BOADICEA Web Application is an example of translational research, where scientific software has been developed further for use by healthcare professionals. For technical reasons, the BOADICEA Web Application is not currently available to members of the public. If you are concerned about your family history of cancer you are advised to consult your GP. The program is available to health care providers as normal.
WEB SURVEY – your views on the future development of BOADICEA needed
In a few weeks, we will begin a major new software development project to extend the BOADICEA model and make the software much easier to use e.g. we plan to include common breast cancer susceptibility alleles and lifestyle/hormonal risk factors in risk calculations, and to develop a new user interface for tablet computers.
If you are a BWA user, we would like you to tell us what you think about the existing BWA software, and what new features you would like us to implement in the future. We need your input to improve the usability of the software and to better meet your expectations. Please could you share your thoughts by completing the web survey accessible here:
This survey is being conducted by colleagues in Cologne University and the Curie Institute.