AI Tool Predicts Cancer Survival Odds from a Single Face Photo

Researchers have developed an AI tool that can predict cancer patients' survival chances from just one facial photo. The study was published in The Lancet Digital Health. The tool gives each patient a risk score, and those with the highest scores are more likely to die within 90 days.

The model was trained on more than 40 million face images and photos of over 30,000 cancer patients. It estimates age with an error of about 5 years and can sort patients into high-risk and low-risk groups. It works across different ages, races, and cancer types.

Raymond Mak, one of the study's authors, said doctors often find it hard to estimate how long terminally ill patients will live, and this tool can capture the body's reserves and death risk. Miroslaw Bober of the University of Surrey noted the study has not proven the tool offers extra clinical value, so it is not ready for real-world use.

Mak stressed the tool will not be used to deny or limit treatment. It simply gives doctors one more piece of information and may help reduce overtreatment of dying patients.