Take a selfie to see how healthy you are: the idea is enticing and this new research is promising. But so many factors have been ignored

The idea that a single selfie could predict how long someone with cancer may live sounds like an incredible breakthrough. AI is getting better at spotting patterns in medical data, but can it be used to reliably predict what will happen to an individual patient? I asked a clinical colleague what she thought about the recent headlines. She found it an interesting development given that doctors have long used facial appearance to assess patient health. For example, she noted that they may write “appears stated age” or “appears older than stated age” as a proxy for general health.

Now, researchers from Mass General Brigham, a healthcare institution in Massachusetts, have taken this idea a step further. They have developed an AI model trained on more than 40 million facial images – called FAHR-Face – to assess biological age and predict survival in cancer patients. For biological age, they developed FAHR-FaceAge, which estimates age from certain facial features such as the forehead, the wrinkles between the nose and mouth and the temples. For cancer survival, they developed FAHR-FaceSurvival, trained using almost 35,000 photos of cancer patients. This model focused more closely on the area below the eyes and the bridge of the nose – regions of the face “linked with dying”. Dr Raymond Mak, one of the study’s authors, noted that these parts of the face are the same as those referenced by Hippocrates in 400BC as signs of muscle wasting and mortality risk: “the nose sharp, the eyes sunken, the temples fallen in”.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

Some change in our lifestyles and environments over a generation has caused this increased risk. What, exactly, is a mystery

• Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

In the field of global health, we often talk about each generation living longer and healthier lives than their parents. We’ve seen this in the gains in life expectancy, the sharp decrease in child mortality and in the near elimination of many vaccine-preventable diseases. But since the turn of the century this progress has stalled, and in some cases several health metrics have gone backwards.

Take cancer, which was long thought to be a disease linked to old age. While most cancers do indeed still occur in elderly people, a new report highlights that a number of cancers are increasing in people who are under 50, often referred to as “early onset cancer”. The report, undertaken by the World Cancer Research Fund, looked at data from 12 different cancer types in England, the US and the Netherlands over the past 20 years. What they found isn’t pretty.

Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh

With cancer cases rising fastest in poorer countries, Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, president-elect of the Union for International Cancer Control, says Africa needs investment in research, diagnosis and prevention

When Dr Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu last saw Gloria in Abuja, the young breast cancer patient was so ill that she was in hospital. The cancer had spread to her bones and lungs, and she was struggling with complications from the disease.

Then, at a global conference on cancer thousands of miles away in Hong Kong last month, Bagudu saw her again. Gloria was walking with a stick because of the cancer in her hips, but she was attending sessions, speaking about her experience and advocating for other patients.

Research finds temperature and amount of hot drinks consumed heightens possibility of developing disease

Drinking very hot tea and coffee triples the risk of developing cancer of the gullet, the world’s largest study of the link between them has found.

The findings show that people should let very hot cups of tea and coffee cool down until they are comfortable to drink, in order to reduce their risk of the disease, cancer experts said.

Organoids and tissues grown from human cells promise more accurate results, with £20m Cambridge project to create standardised models

Miniature human organs and other tissues are to be grown from NHS patients’ cells in a drive to improve medicine testing and reduce the number of animals used in drug development.

Scientists will use the clumps of tissue to learn how diseases vary between patients, helping them identify which treatments are best for different people based on the particular pathology underlying their condition.

The disease will touch 92% of people globally, finds annual review, while ‘persistent’ inequities found to exist in access to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care

Remarkable scientific progress against cancer has changed very little for millions of patients globally, who face devastating physical, emotional and financial consequences after diagnosis, a new World Health Organization report has warned.

One person in five will develop cancer, according to WHO estimates, and the disease will touch 92% of people, either through their own diagnosis or that of a close family member.

Study suggests even light activity such as ironing could reduce health risks linked to prolonged sedentary behaviour

Sitting for longer than half an hour at a time each day raises the risk of dying from cancer, a study suggests.

Researchers who tracked more than 90,000 people over a decade found that sitting or lying down while awake for more than 30 minutes in one period each day was associated with an increased risk of cancer death. The risk increases for every additional hour of continuous inactivity, the findings suggest.

Underwater expedition by Florida-based team supports possible therapeutic use of bacterial toxins from sea squirts

Researchers at a Florida university say bacterial toxins produced by tiny marine organisms they have studied in Antarctica could become an effective treatment for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

A team from the University of South Florida (USF) recently returned from a six-week expedition to one of the world’s remotest regions in which they collected samples of ascidians, invertebrates known as sea squirts that thrive in the icy waters.

Exclusive: Cancer charity says dispelling falsehoods gleaned from social media is now routine task for clinicians

Social media misinformation about the use of dietary supplements such as turmeric, St John’s wort and magnesium is now so common that dispelling online claims has become a routine part of NHS clinicians work.

Two out of five frontline health workers say they encounter patients who raise inaccurate or misleading information about supplements at least once a week.

A drug for pancreatic cancer shows immense promise, but we shouldn’t forget research in the field is a story of small victories

It is unlikely that we will ever declare a final victory over cancer. Governments have often promised it: from Nixon’s 1971 “war on cancer” to the 2016 Obama‑Biden plan to fight and cure it “once and for all” and Sajid Javid’s 2022 “war on cancer” initiative in the UK. But framing it this way can obscure how real progress is made: not in stunning routs, but in stalling and turning back the advance of this terrible condition – often in simply giving people more time to live.

Several such breakthroughs, and a bigger one that could transform the treatment of multiple kinds of cancer over the next decade, emerged at last week’s American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. As the Guardian revealed, there is a new jab effective against head and neck cancers in some patients, and a new immunotherapy that could spare bladder cancer patients invasive and life-changing surgery. Most significantly, there is a new drug called daraxonrasib, which doubled survival time for pancreatic cancer patients in a recent clinical trial.

Drug that stops cancer cells hiding and a breakthrough for pancreatic cancer among highlights from Asco conference – but there were also notes of caution

Doctors, scientists and researchers shared new research about ways to tackle cancer at the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) annual meeting, the world’s largest cancer conference.

The event in Chicago, attended by 40,000 health professionals, featured more than 200 sessions and 2,700 poster presentations on this year’s theme, “the science and practice of translation: improving cancer outcomes worldwide”. Here are the five biggest takeaways.

Durvalumab shows promising results in trial led by London-based Institute of Cancer Research

Doctors are hailing a drug that spares bladder cancer patients “life-changing” surgery and stops tumours coming back.

Bladder cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the world. Advanced or aggressive forms are often treated with surgery to remove the entire bladder, with patients left having to find alternative ways to pass urine for the rest of their life.

It’s natural to focus on breakthroughs, but there are many challenges in Britain and around the world. There is no magic bullet, but there’s room for optimism

Cancer causes nearly one in six deaths worldwide every year, some 10 million all told. That is a stunning number, but it also masks the reality that some cancers are more deadly than others. We have become remarkably good at detecting and treating melanoma and prostate cancer, for example, and today five-year survival rates for those cancers are well over 90% in most rich countries. Others, such as pancreatic cancer, are more difficult. In the UK, just over one in 20 people with pancreatic cancer are still alive five years after diagnosis.

That is why a new drug for pancreatic cancer, called daraxonrasib and announced at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (Asco) annual meeting in Chicago at the weekend, has been met with such jubilation. The drug – taken as a pill once a day – doubled the survival time of those enrolled in a 500-person trial, with fewer side effects compared to traditional chemotherapy. The drug works by shutting down a protein, Kras, that causes cancer cells to grow and divide. One longtime cancer researcher reported that she cried reading the results. With so few effective treatments for this cancer available, the drug is likely to be a real game-changer.

Experimental tablet produces encouraging results in patients with world’s most common forms of disease

• ‘I was getting ready to say goodbye’: patient’s hope after smart drug success

A smart drug that stops cancer cells “hiding” from treatment can shrink tumours by at least 30% in six of the world’s most common forms of the disease, early trial results show.

While immunotherapy treatments have improved survival rates for many patients, their effectiveness can stall or fail when tumour cells hide and then spread.

Experts hail daraxonrasib as ‘gamechanger’ for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer

A daily pill can double survival time in patients with the world’s deadliest cancer, according to the results of a clinical trial that experts are saying is a “gamechanger” and one of the biggest breakthroughs in decades.

Currently, there are few treatments for pancreatic cancer, and most do little or nothing to help. For decades, scientists have worked relentlessly trying to find clever solutions for a form of cancer that is often found late. More than half of patients are only diagnosed after it has spread.

Jab brought ‘unprecedentedly strong responses’ in patients whose disease had become resistant to chemotherapy and immunotherapy

Doctors have hailed “unprecedented” trial results that show a triple-action cancer jab can eradicate entire tumours in patients.

In an international trial spanning 11 countries, the injection was offered to patients whose cancer had spread or come back and whose disease had failed to respond to other treatments.

Trial suggests patients with a low test score could be treated with hormone therapy alone with near-identical outcomes

• ‘Like Christmas’: woman’s relief after test finds she can skip chemotherapy

Millions of women with breast cancer could be spared chemotherapy with a groundbreaking genomic test, according to the results of a trial that could transform healthcare guidelines worldwide.

Treatment for breast cancer, the world’s most prevalent form of the disease, involves surgery to remove tumours. Chemotherapy is then usually recommended when doctors believe there is a risk the disease will return.

Health organisations refute assertion by Sunbed Association that tanning is protective and warn it could increase risk of skin cancer

The body that represents the UK’s sunbed salons is wrongly insisting that a tan protects against sunburn, even though leading medical bodies say that claim is untrue.

Health organisations have challenged the accuracy of information being disseminated by the Sunbed Association, which on its website asks: “Is it true there is no such thing as a safe tan?”

Cancer Research UK figures show number diagnosed with most serious form of skin cancer has risen above 20,000 for first time

The number of cases from the most serious form of skin cancer have reached a record high across the UK, according to analysis by a leading cancer charity.

Melanoma cases in the UK have risen above 20,000 for the first time ever, with 20,980 people being diagnosed with the form of cancer in 2022, according to analysis of the latest figures by Cancer Research UK.

PhenMap tool could spare thousands of patients from treatment that would be ineffective for them

A new AI-driven way of identifying how patients with advanced bowel cancer will respond to a drug that was recently introduced by the NHS has been announced.

Researchers at London’s Institute of Cancer Research and the RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences in Dublin have developed the method with the goal of sparing potentially thousands of patients from being given drugs that would be ineffective in fighting their cancers.