American scientists believe that looking at a person’s face can potentially save their life. Research published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications indicated that the rate of facial aging can predict a patient’s chances of overcoming invasive cancer.
- Biological aging of the face can predict the likelihood of cancer survival.
- Scientists have developed a tool called FaceAge that can estimate biological age from facial analysis.
- Patients with a biological age five years older have a significantly higher mortality rate.
Biological aging varies significantly between individuals and has a major impact on cancer treatment outcomes, independent of chronological age. However, simple and non-invasive tools for measuring this parameter have been lacking in common clinical practice until now. Artificial intelligence has filled this gap. Scientists from Mass General Brigham Hospital in the United States have developed FaceAgean AI tool that analyzes facial features such as skin texture, volume loss and anatomical changes to estimate biological age.
The team also created a model to detect signs of poor health called Foundation Artificial Intelligence Models for Health Recognition (FAHR-FaceAge), which trained on the basis of more than 40 million photographs of faces. By linking it to the instrument FaceAge researchers found that patients whose biological age was at least five years older than their actual age faced a 21% higher risk of death.
Your face can predict a lot about your health. (illustrative photo)
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The team took the analysis further and examined facial photographs taken at different stages of treatment to track the rate of aging and its association with patient survival. A retrospective study included 2276 cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy. More than 60% of them had metastases at the start of treatment. For each patient, the researchers took two facial images at the beginning of each radiotherapy cycle.
Based on these data and images, the scientists then calculated the rate of facial aging (Facial Aging Rate – FAR) by dividing the difference in biological age by the number of days between taking individual pictures. They divided the time intervals into short (10 to 365 days), medium (366 to 730 days) and long (731 to 1460 days), with different FAR thresholds set for each.
The results showed that patients with high rates of facial aging had worse treatment outcomes regardless of gender, ethnicity or cancer type. In the short interval group, high FAR was associated with a 25% higher risk of death. At medium and long intervals, this risk rose to 37% and 65%, respectively. This phenomenon was even more pronounced in patients with metastases.
Research has also looked at the impact of the initial deviation of biological age from chronological age, along with the rate of aging. Patients with high values in both parameters faced the highest risk of death, but the FAR parameter proved to be the strongest predictor of survival, especially at longer intervals.
The authors point out that biological aging is not linear. Its sudden acceleration can occur due to damage to DNA or the cells themselves. In cancer patients, the rate of aging can reflect both the progression of the disease and the effects of treatment. The FAR indicator has several advantages – it is available, inexpensive and allows repeated monitoring during therapy.
If these findings are confirmed in further studies, FAR could become a standard oncology tool to identify patients at high risk of death and adjust the intensity of treatment. However, the researchers warn that the results may not be completely generalizable due to the ethnic and age composition of the study.
This article comes from the Ringier publishing partner website. The content and data contained in it were taken without editorial intervention.
