The criteria developed by UK health technology assessment (HTA) agency NICE to decide who should be referred by GPs for further breast cancer risk assessment miss up to 95% of younger women who go on to develop the disease. According to the researchers behind the study, led by Dr Juliet Usher-Smith from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at Cambridge, a key reason is the reliance on family history of breast cancer in the NICE criteria. In fact, almost three-quarters of women (73%) under 50 who develop breast cancer within the next decade have no family history of the disease. "The current NICE criteria used in general practice are missing up to 95% of women under 50 who will go on to develop breast cancer," said Usher-Smith. Also, he questioned how identifying women under the age of 50 who are high risk enables early intervention to prevent or treat breast cancer.