How a selfie-scanning AI tool to calculate biological age could help doctors treat cancers


A selfie can be used as a tool to help doctors determine a patient’s “biological age” and judge how well they may respond to cancer treatment, a new study suggests.

The FaceAge AI tool can estimate a person’s biological age, as opposed to their actual age, by scanning an image of their face, the study found.

A person’s biological age, which is a predictor of their overall health and can be a predictor of life expectancy, is based on many factors, including lifestyle and genetics, said researchers from Mass General Brigham in the US state of Massachusetts.

A representation of how FaceAge might be calculated from a photo of a patient. The patient in this photo is AI-generated. Photo: Mass General Brigham
A representation of how FaceAge might be calculated from a photo of a patient. The patient in this photo is AI-generated. Photo: Mass General Brigham

They wanted to examine whether biological age could be examined based on how a person looks – similar to what doctors call an “eyeball test”, in which certain judgments are made based on how a person looks.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *