Doctors diagnosed cancer by searching Google

Study: evidence of cancer by search engine data
Microsoft researchers have found in a study that search engine inquiries show users signs of specific cancers. The goal of the scientists is not to be the online diagnosis of the disease, but to encourage at-risk persons to see a doctor.

Cancer diagnosis through search engine inquiries
Even though health experts repeatedly warn against self-diagnoses on the Internet, this hardly prevents anyone from searching for possible causes of complaints in the internet. Although pancreatic cancer does not appear in the 50 most frequently sought-after diseases in the network, typical symptoms such as abdominal pain or back pain already exist. But it is precisely this type of cancer, the first signs of which are often unspecific and therefore often recognized too late, was the focus of a study by Microsoft researchers. They showed that pancreatic cancer can be detected months before the medical diagnosis by evaluating inquiries to Microsoft's search engine Bing.

Researchers at Microsoft have found in a study that search engine queries show users signs of pancreatic cancer. (Image: stokkete / fotolia.com)

Anonymized data evaluated
Eric Horvitz, Ryen White and John Paparrizos have worked with a record of 6.4 million requests, according to a Technology Review report. They report on the results in the medical journal "Journal of Oncology Practice". According to them, they used the anonymized data to filter out the searches they could make from a clear diagnosis, such as "I was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer," or "Why did I get cancer in the pancreas?" From there, they searched the search histories several months back for signs indicating the disease. In addition to abdominal pain and unexplained weight loss, this also includes dark urine. The scientists also included risk factors such as alcohol dependence and obesity.

Low number of false alarms
"We discovered patterns in the search queries that can predict the future occurrence of search queries that suggest a clear diagnosis," explain the authors. According to the information, they succeeded in five to 15 percent of cases, the early detection. Also impressive are the "extremely low error rates of 1 to 100,000". However, Ryen White highlighted in the Microsoft blog that an online diagnosis of the disease was not the goal: "The goal is to encourage those who seek the highest risk."

Psychological effects of the warnings not clarified
It is said that the team's purpose was to initiate a discussion among physicians. Although principled feasibility has been demonstrated, it is not intended to send a cancer alert to Microsoft customers in the near future. However, the researchers said, "We are looking forward to applying the analysis to other devastating and difficult-to-diagnose diseases." But even though web-based screening is easy and inexpensive, the psychological implications of such warnings are far from clear. (Ad)