A Simple Selfie Could Reveal Your Odds Of Surviving Cancer, Study Reveals

Artificial intelligence (AI) can now analyse a person's selfie and predict their chance of surviving cancer, a new study published in the journal Lancet Digital Health has claimed. Researchers stated that the AI tool can be used to measure the "biological age" of a person, which is a key parameter in assessing whether they will beat the cancer odds or not.

A team from Mass General Brigham, a non-profit research group in the United States, used the tool called FaceAge, which was trained using 59,000 photos. The researchers are of the view that someone's biological age, rather than their actual age, is a better predictor of someone's overall health and life expectancy.

The tool was used on 6,200 patients with cancer using images taken at the start of their treatment.

"We also assessed the performance of FaceAge in patients with metastatic cancer receiving palliative treatment at the end of life by incorporating FaceAge into clinical prediction models," the study highlighted.

The academics found that the biological age of patients with cancer was, on average, five years older than their actual age.

“Our study now has shown for the first time that we can really use AI to turn a selfie into a real biomarker source of ageing,” said Dr Hugo Aerts, corresponding author of the paper.

“The impact can be very large, because we now have a way to actually very easily monitor a patient's health status continuously and this could help us to better predict the risk of death or complications after, say, for example, a major surgery or other treatments,” he added.

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The researchers cited the example of actors Paul Rudd and Wilford Brimley based on photographs of the men when they were both 50 years old. Mr Rudd's age was calculated to be 42.6 while Mr Brimley, who died in 2020, was assessed to have a biological age of 69, according to a report in The Telegraph.

The academics said more research was required to widen its scope and find if other conditions or diseases could also be analysed using a simple selfie.

"Further research, including validation in larger cohorts, is needed to verify these findings in patients with cancer and to establish whether the findings extend to patients with other diseases."