How selfies could soon be used to diagnose cancer!

From Cosmopolitan UK

We all love a selfie. With the right make up, outfit and flattering Instagram filter (thank you Valencia) we can feel pretty darn great about ourselves.

But researchers at the University of Washington claim they have developed an app that could diagnose pancreatic cancer from a portrait shot of the user. In short, a selfie could soon save your life.

The BiliScreen works by analysing the amount of yellow discolouration that’s in the whites of your eyes. This can be a sign of jaundice before it’s detectable to the naked eye.

Jaundice, which is often the discolouration of skin in infants, is also a big tell-tale sign of pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer typically has a five-year survival rate of just 9 percent because it often goes undetected until it has already reached an advanced stage.

So doctors, computer scientists and electrical engineers have now developed the BillScreen and an early clinical study of 70 people found it correctly identified "cases for concern" nearly 90 percent of the time.

"The hope is that if people can do this simple test once a month - in the privacy of their own homes - some might catch the disease early enough to undergo treatment that could save their lives," said Alex Mariakakis, lead author of the paper detailing the app.