Cancer patients whose faces looked at least five years older than their actual age had a 21% higher risk of death, after accounting for age, sex, cancer type, and other factors, in a Mass General Brigham analysis of about 38,000 patients, The Boston Globe reported. The findings, published Oct. 19 in The Lancet Digital Health, come from a new AI system that estimates biological age from a single face photo.
The same team is also inviting the public to upload selfies to a research portal, which has drawn more than 10,000 sign-ups since it quietly launched in March. A phone photo is cheaper and simpler than a lab test, which explains the appeal. But the results come from historical patient records, and the portal is for research, not diagnosis.
