A new AI tool called FaceAge can look at a photo of your face and estimate your biological age—which may be different from your real (chronological) age. It was developed by researchers at Mass General Brigham to help predict how cancer patients might respond to treatment and what their survival chances are.
The researchers found that people with cancer usually look about five years older than their actual age. Those who looked older had worse survival outcomes, especially if they looked older than 85—even if they weren’t that old.
FaceAge was even better than doctors at predicting short-term survival for patients getting palliative care (treatment to relieve symptoms). When doctors were given a patient’s FaceAge, their predictions improved.
FaceAge was trained using almost 59,000 photos of healthy people and tested on over 6,000 cancer patients. Photos were taken at the start of radiation therapy. The AI showed that how old a person looks can give clues about their overall health and how well they might respond to cancer treatment.
The researchers hope FaceAge could one day be used to detect other diseases and help doctors create better care plans. But more testing is needed in different hospitals, with different patients, and over longer periods.
Dr. Hugo Aerts, one of the study’s authors, said, “Even a simple selfie can give doctors important health information.” Another author, Dr. Ray Mak, said, “This could lead to new ways of finding early signs of many diseases, not just cancer.”
Source: medicalxpress
