When it comes to diagnosing cancer, it’s best to leave the full examination process to the professionals. For example, most people are looking for the wrong telltale sign when it comes to doing a self-check for skin cancer. Beyond detection, opting for treatment outside of the doctor’s office can prove to be fatal for cancer patients.
In short, doctors know what they’re doing and should be your first course of action. But if you can’t get to your doctor right away, your selfie-taking skills might actually be able to help save your life.
Researchers from the University of Washington have developed a new app that analyzes the whites of your eyes for onset jaundice, a harbinger of pancreatic cancer (here are some other signs of pancreatic cancer you shouldn’t ignore). The app is called “BiliScreen,” and could prove to be a real game changer for a disease that is extremely hard to detect and has a survival rate of just 9 percent after five years.
Jaundice is identifiable by a general yellowing of the eyes, which is the result of a buildup of bilirubin in a person’s system. Bilirubin is a waste product which is produced during the breakdown of hemoglobin and unhealthy systems fail to filter it out.
In trial testing, the app was able to correctly diagnose 90 percent of “cases for concern” in 70 participants. Although the results are promising, you should always see your doctor for a professional diagnosis. The app is currently not available to the public.
[Source: The Independent]
