App aims to get younger women to check for breast cancer

There's hopes a new app will encourage younger women to check themselves for breast cancer.

Pre Check, launched by the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation, teaches users how to look for signs of the disease.

Breast Cancer Foundation CEO Evangelia Henderson said it's not difficult to use.

"It's nothing complicated, it just normalises what you should look for, how to do a breast exam and it also sets reminders."

Henderson said the foundation is hoping to get more young women checking themselves out using the app, as screening only starts at 40.

"Even though breast cancer is a disease that hits older women more, younger women are also not immune from breast cancer so this app will allow you to learn the signs and symptoms."

Annually there are 2.1 million new cases of female breast cancer around the world, with around 626,000 women still dying from the disease each year. Research from the Breast Cancer Foundation last year showed Kiwi women are dying twice as fast of breast cancer compared with women in other countries. 

Henderson told Newshub half of all breast cancers are found by women feeling a lump or noticing some of the other symptoms.

Other symptoms of breast cancer include swelling, skin irritation or breast pain.

Newshub.