Predicting cancer outcomes with a selfie - Harvard Gazette

Researchers used an AI tool called FaceAge to connect biological age signals with cancer outcomes. The tool relies on simple digital photographs to estimate how quickly a person appears to age during treatment. Two studies build on an earlier pilot study and examine whether biological age can differ from chronological age in clinically meaningful ways. Findings indicate that looking younger than chronological age and aging more slowly during treatment are associated with better survival odds. If validated in ongoing clinical studies, the approach could enable screening by uploading a photograph for algorithmic analysis. Clinicians could also tailor counseling and treatment intensity based on biological age rather than chronological age alone.

"Researchers using artificial intelligence to plumb links between biological age and cancer outcomes have linked both looking younger than your chronological age and appearing to age slower during treatment to improved survival. The work, which follows a pilot study published in May 2025, highlights how medical artificial intelligence and simple digital photographs of patients' faces can be harnessed in a tool with the potential to improve screening and treatment outcomes."

"Highlighted in two separate studies, the work explored the potential utility of the idea that one's biological age can vary from one's chronological age and that difference can be clinically meaningful. If confirmed by ongoing clinical studies, the tool could one day provide screening by simply uploading a digital photograph for analysis by an algorithm developed by researchers, dubbed FaceAge."

"The tool could also guide physicians to counsel patients differently depending on their biological age. If, for example, a patient is relatively youthful biologically, a physician might suggest more aggressive treatment, while steering to a less rigorous course for someone of the same chronological age but biologically older and frailer."

""One of the first numbers they put in is your chronological age. It's done by every single primary care doctor, the same with a pre-op evaluation, the same with a lot of our risk calculators and cancer care," Mak said. "What we're arguing is why use chronological age when we're seeing these massive de""

Read at Harvard Gazette