A simple selfie can be used to estimate a person’s biological age — and their chance of surviving cancer, according to researchers. Experts have developed two AI models trained on more than 40 million photographs to determine key indicators of health. The first estimated a person’s biological age with greater accuracy than previous algorithms, with an average error margin of 5.1 years.
Biological ageing refers to how old the body is in terms of health and function rather than the number of years a person has lived. The second model was trained on 34,000 photos of people with cancer and predicted survival outcomes.
Patients placed in the highest risk quartile by the model were three times more likely to die during the study period than those in the lowest quartile.
Study co-author Dr Raymond Mak, a radiation oncologist at Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute in Massachusetts, USA, said: “As the population ages, physicians need better ways to estimate physical reserve and frailty before recommending intensive treatments such as radiation, surgery or systemic therapy.
“Our goal is to make face photograph-based health assessment more quantitative, consistent and scalable so it can support personalised treatment decisions rather than replace physician judgment.”
The model developed for estimating biological age, FAHR-FaceAge, focused on the forehead area just above the eyes and the temples. Meanwhile FAHR-FaceSurvival, the model developed for cancer survival predictions, evaluated the region below the eyes and around the nasal bridge.
Lifestyle factors including heavy alcohol use, drug use and smoking were associated with looking biologically older. Smoking showed the strongest pattern, with current smokers looking older than former smokers and former smokers looking older than people who had never smoked.
Writing in The Lancet Digital Health, the researchers said the tools could be used to “flag patients unlikely to tolerate aggressive therapy, improving resource allocation and quality of life”.
They added: “As facial features also reflect behaviours such as smoking and alcohol use, the same tool can track lifestyle change or anti-ageing interventions, offering immediate feedback.”
Dr Mak said the FAHR-FaceAge estimates remained consistent despite variation in photos such as pose, lighting, facial expression and makeup.
He added: “It was also stable across most tested plastic surgery procedures, with only a small shift observed after rhinoplasty.”
Professor Hugo Aerts, director of the Artificial Intelligence in Medicine programme at Mass General Brigham, added: “To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration that an AI model can directly predict cancer survival from a simple photograph.”
The team is now expanding their research through the one FaceAge Research Study. It aims to enrol 10,000 people to gather a diverse mix of age, racial, ethnic and medical backgrounds.
- You can upload a photo and find out your estimated biological age by joining the research study at faceage.bwh.harvard.edu.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
