Local hospital promotes new cancer risk assessment tool -- and story of Olivia Munn.

Like other celebrities before her, Olivia Munn has been fighting breast cancer.

But the celebrity shared something else recently when she announced her cancer fight on Instagram.

A new risk assessment tool helped her doctors discover her breast cancer about a year ahead of her next scheduled mammogram.

Munn's announcement was noticed at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence last month, where staff have been employing the same technique.

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Noting Munn's situation, the hospital recently set out to promote the approach.

"We definitely are finding cancers earlier when they are smaller and more easily treated," said Dr. Susan Koelliker, the hospital's radiologist-in-chief.

Mammogram versus MRI

Basically, an annual mammogram screening is not as sensitive at detecting breast cancer as Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI.

However, an MRI is a lengthier and more expensive screening.

Koelliker says the risk assessment offered at Women & Infants identifies women who are at higher risk for breast cancer.

Then, for that reason, it makes sense for those women to have the more intensive MRI screening each year, Koelliker said.

How does the breast cancer risk assessment work?

The assessment is a two-part process:

First, patients answer a questionnaire on a tablet device.

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The device gathers historical data and other medical information. Then some diagnostic images are gathered during the exam.

The assessment tool then synthesizes all the data and imagery to generate a score.

What was Munn's cancer risk score?

In her case, Munn learned she had a lifetime risk of 37 percent, according to an article in USA Today.

The next step was the MRI, an ultrasound and a biopsy, which found that Munn had Luminal B cancer. It was "fast moving" and she received a double mastectomy a month later, she said in her post.

"I'm lucky," Munn also said, "We caught it with enough time that I had options. I want the same for any woman who might face this some day."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Women & Infants offers same cancer fighting tool cited by Olivia Munn