A simple selfie could reveal clues about a person’s health and life expectancy, especially if they have cancer.
Researchers at Mass General Brigham in Boston developed AI models that use facial photos to estimate cancer patients’ biological age and survival chances.
The study, published on October 20 in The Lancet Digital Health, suggests facial analysis could help doctors assess patients’ survival chances and determine the most effective cancer treatments.
Trained on more than 40 million facial images, the AI models analyze facial features to estimate cancer patients’ health and biological age. Unlike chronological age, biological age reflects how well the body has aged.
“The age estimation algorithm is looking at the area around the temples, the area on the forehead, above the eyes and then what we call the nasolabial fold, the line that connects the nose down to the corner of your mouth,” said study author Dr. Raymond Mak, a radiation oncologist at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute and a faculty member in the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine program at Mass General Brigham.
Like it or not, AI has become a part of daily life, from scheduling our mornings to helping doctors read cancer scans. But new research shows these powerful tools may be picking up more than medical clues.
Intrigued? Dive into this gallery to see what scientists found and why it matters for all of us.