Dr Google spots cancers ‘up to a year earlier’

Women who went on to be diagnosed with the disease were looking up symptoms online nearly a year before

OVARIAN cancers could be spotted a year before diagnosis by “Dr Google” and patients advised to visit their GP, research suggests.

Researchers at Imperial College London studied the Google search data of 235 women, some of whom were diagnosed with cancer and others who remained healthy.

The researchers found that women who went on to suffer from ovarian cancer were looking up symptoms, such as weight loss, bladder problems, and bloating online nearly a year before being referred to a specialist with suspected cancer. Among those who had cancer, researchers noted a spike in urinary symptoms up to 140 days before a GP referral, while pelvic pain emerged around 70 days in advance.

The team said the findings not only showed that cancer could be picked up far earlier, but challenged the idea that ovarian cancer is a “silent killer” with most women asymptomatic.

Dr Jennifer Barcroft, the lead author of the study, which was conducted by Imperial College London’s department of metabolism, digestion and reproduction, said: “Our results show that it is possible to use search engine data to understand how conditions present, and that this may have use in early disease detection.”

Dr Barcroft added: “Online search data offers enormous potential within health and disease screening, given the widespread use of the internet worldwide.”

Ovarian cancer is the sixth most common cancer in the UK, with about 7,400 women diagnosed each year and more than 4,000 deaths annually.

It is often diagnosed late because symptoms are vague and can include bloating, indigestion, pelvic or abdominal pain, loss of appetite, constipation, and needing to urinate more often.

Previous research has shown women often buy medication to alleviate these symptoms and avoid visiting their GP until it is too late.

Around 93 per cent of women who are diagnosed with ovarian cancer can survive for five years or more if diagnosed at stage one – the earliest stage – compared with just 13 per cent when diagnosed at the latest stage – stage four.

However, about 70 per cent of ovarian cancer cases present when the disease has progressed to an advanced stage.

Although patients are generally persuaded against Googling their symptoms, the research team believes that the internet could act as a “triaging tool” that which would spot red-flag search terms, and advise patients to visit their GP.

Dr Srdjan Saso, a senior author and the chief investigator for the study who is also a gynaecological cancer surgeon at Imperial College, warned that ovarian cancer is “one of the most lethal cancers for women”.

He said: “The focus, therefore, remains on facilitating early disease detection.

“However, we do not have a screening programme in place to enable this.”

For the study, the researchers looked at the Google search data of women with an average age of 53 between December 2020 and June 2022.

The data was obtained with consent using Google Takeout, a tool that enables people to download a copy of their data that is stored within Google products.

Using health search filters on Google Takeout, the researchers were able to see the differences in searches between women who did, and did not, have ovarian cancer.

The predictions became more accurate around 60 days in advance of a GP referral, they said.

Prof Ingemar Cox, another senior author of the study who works in the computer science department at University College London – said that the findings “raised important ethical and privacy concerns, which need to be resolved”.

Dr Saso said the results appeared “very promising”, but further research was needed to validate the study’s findings.

The research was published in the journal BMC Medicine.

‘Online search data offers enormous potential within health and disease screening’

‘Ovarian cancer is one of the lethal cancers for women – so early detection is vital’