Researchers at Ankara University in Turkey have made a new AI tool that can help find lung cancer early just by listening to a person’s voice.
The team, led by Dr. Haydar Ankışhan, worked with experts from different fields to develop this tool. They found that changes in a person’s voice might show signs of lung cancer before other symptoms appear.
At a press meeting, Dr. Ankışhan said their tool looks at how the lungs and blood flow affect the sound of a person’s voice. “We found that voice changes can give us early clues about lung cancer,” he explained.
After about 18 months of research, the team found that their AI tool could detect early-stage lung cancer with over 90% accuracy.
The app works by recording someone’s voice in a normal setting and analyzing it with AI. The researchers trained the AI to tell the difference between healthy voices and those of people with lung cancer.
Dr. Bülent Mustafa Yenigün, another researcher, said catching lung cancer early can save lives. He also said the team wanted to make a test that’s safe, low-cost, and doesn’t require harmful x-rays.
In their first study, they tested 50 lung cancer patients and 50 healthy people. Each person read a two-minute script. The AI correctly found signs of cancer in up to 92% of the cases.
However, Dr. Yenigün said more testing is needed. “We need thousands more recordings to make it even better and more accurate,” he said.
He also explained how it works: tumors in the lungs change the way air flows and how the voice sounds. The AI picks up on these small sound changes.
If more data is collected and legal steps are taken, the tool could be used in hospitals or screening programs in just 1–3 years.
Source: dailysabah
