This risk assessment tool helped Olivia Munn discover her breast cancer [Video]

A tool that’s available as an online calculator played a key role in actress Olivia Munn’s discovery that she had breast cancer – even after she had “a normal mammogram,” according to a social media post.

The “X-Men: Apocalypse” star, 43, wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday that she was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and would not have discovered it if her physician, Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, had not calculated her breast cancer risk score.

Using that assessment, Aliabadi discovered that Munn’s lifetime risk for breast cancer was 37%. Because of that score, Munn had additional evaluations, leading to her diagnosis, according to her post.

A breast cancer risk assessment tool uses a statistical model to estimate a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer over the next five years as well as over her lifetime, or up to about age 90, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The tool typically involves several questions about the person’s medical history, reproductive history and family history. Although …