An artificial intelligence tool that reveals the biological age from the “selfie” image and supports doctors in the treatment of cancer

Artificial intelligence provides, through a simple image, the possibility of displaying the biological age of the body, which does not necessarily constitute the date of birth as an indication, as announced by the famous “Lancet Digital Health” magazine.

Vacege is undergoing training using tens of thousands of photos. It has been able to find that cancer patients are 5 years older than on average, from a biological point of view, than healthy people.

Scientists believe that biological life, that is, the age of the cells of the body, differs from the actual age of a person.

In their study published in the magazine “Lancet Digital Health”, the researchers note that the “Weiss Edge” application helps doctors determine the actual ability of the patient to endure strong treatments safely, or choose less severe alternatives if necessary.

“Our assumption is that” Weiss Edge “can be used as a vital indicator in the treatment of cancer to measure the patient’s biological age and help the doctor make difficult decisions.

Data from a simple selfie image

As a 75 -year -old man, his biological age, 65 years old, another 60 -year -old, is 70 years old, surgical radiotherapy may be appropriate for the first and not suitable for the second.

The same logic can be based to make decisions related to heart surgery, artificial hip ends, or aging.

Humans are old at different rates depending on their genes, tension they test, extent to which exercise, and some habits such as smoking or alcohol drink.

Although expensive genetic tests can already monitor DNA erosion over time, Weiss Edge provides data based on a simple selfie image.

This tool was trained on 58,851 photos of adults over the age of 60 and are apparently healthy, chosen from public data.

The tool was then tested on 6,196 cancer patients in the United States and the Netherlands, through pictures taken immediately before radiotherapy.

The result was that patients with malignant tumors are about 4.79 of their time ages.

In cancer patients, the higher this number, the lower chances of survival, even after taking into account the actual life, sex and the type of tumor. The risk increases dramatically for anyone who is more than 85 years old.

Ethics -related risks

The signs associated with aging are usually such as gray hair or baldness, for “Weiss Edge” is less important than precise changes in the facial muscles.

The tool thus helps to improve the degree of accuracy of doctors. 8 of them were invited to inspect pictures of cancer patients in an advanced stage, and guess from Simut within 6 months.

Their success rate was slightly higher than an approximate evaluation. But with the “Weiss Edge” data, their expectations were greatly improved.

On the sidelines of this, “Weiss Edge” estimated the biological age of actor Paul Road by 43 years based on a photo taken of him when he was 50 years old.

Artificial intelligence tools are sometimes criticized for their greatest interest in white people. The study participant, Raymond Mac, said that he had not found any major racism in what Weiss Edge expected.

The group also continues the training process on 20,000 patients for a second generation model.

However, this technological progress is not without fears, as is the case often, as it may arouse the interest of insurance companies or employers who always seek to evaluate risks better.

Hugo Aartes, a participant in preparing the study and head of the AI ​​Department of Medical Programs at Massachusetts General Brigham, calls for “ensuring that these techniques are used only to serve the patient’s interest.”