Chatbot spots cancer early: Doctor's diagnosis comes late
27-year-old Marly Garnreiter entered her symptoms into ChatGPT, which suggested that she might have blood cancer. She ignored it, but a year later, doctors confirmed she had Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Marly Garnreiter from Paris was suffering from night sweats and itchy skin. Initially, she thought these were effects of anxiety and grief after her father Victor's death, who passed away from colorectal cancer in January 2023 at the age of 58.
When medical tests showed no abnormalities, she decided to enter her symptoms into ChatGPT. "It said I had blood cancer (...) I ignored it. My friends were spectical when I told them, and said I should only consult real doctors," she admitted in an interview with "The Daily Mail."
ChatGPT diagnosed her with blood cancer. Doctors confirmed
A few months later, Marly began feeling that "something was wrong." "I had a pain in my chest and I was tired all the time," she explained. Tests showed a "big mass" on her left lung, and tests confirmed Hodgkin's lymphoma, a type of blood cancer attacking white blood cells.
ChatGPT was right a year earlier. Marly admitted she "felt like everything was unfair." "I didn't want my family to go through this one more time," she said, referring to the chemotherapy she started in March, a year after her father's death.
According to the Cleveland Clinic, Hodgkin's lymphoma is a rare but curable form of cancer. The lowest five-year survival rate is 81%. Symptoms include itchy skin, night sweats, abdominal pain, fever, and fatigue.
Marly is "confident for the future" and urges others to take care of themselves. "It's really important to listen to our bodies," she said. "Sometimes we tend to lose our connection with our inner self," she emphasized.
