cirrhosis and liver cancer: can chatgpt help patients live longer?

researchers suggest the controversial chatbot could be invaluable at providing patients with a wealth of easy-to-understand health knowledge, including lifestyle and treatment information.

by dave yasvinski

published apr 03, 2023

last updated may 25, 2023

4 minute read

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4 minute read

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the software has already demonstrated its value to the health-care industry with its ability to compose basic medical reports. getty

a new study has found that chatgpt, an artificial intelligence platform, has the potential to improve the prognosis of patients suffering from cirrhosis and liver cancer. the research, published in the journal clinical and molecular hepatology, said the controversial chatbot could be invaluable at providing patients with a wealth of knowledge, including lifestyle and treatment information, in a manner that is easy for them to understand.

“patients with cirrhosis and/or liver cancer and their caregivers often have unmet needs and insufficient knowledge about managing and preventing complications of their disease,” said brennan spiegel, co-corresponding author of the study and director of health services research at cedars-sinai medical center in los angeles. “we found chatgpt — while it has limitations — can help empower patients and improve health literacy for different populations.”

five-year survival rate for liver cancer just 22 per cent

an estimated 3,500 canadians were diagnosed with liver cancer in 2022, according to the canadian cancer society, with roughly 1,650 thought to have died from the disease. the five-year net survival rate for liver cancer is just 22 per cent. cirrhosis, an end-stage form of liver disease, is a major risk factor for liver cancer. both of these conditions require an extensive amount of therapy that can be difficult for patients to manage on their own.

“the complexity of care required for this patient population makes patient empowerment with knowledge about their disease crucial for optimal outcomes,” said alexander kuo, co-corresponding author of the study and medical director of liver transplantation medicine at cedars-sinai. “while there are currently online resources for patients and caregivers, the literature available is often lengthy and difficult for many to understand, highlighting the limited options for this group.”

personalized education models, such as chatgpt (or chat generative pre-trained transformer), are growing in popularity because of their ability to respond to user prompts with human-like responses drawn from vast databases. the software has already demonstrated its value to the health-care industry through its ability to compose basic medical reports and correctly answer questions that commonly appear on medical school exams.

“chatgpt has shown to be able to provide professional, yet highly comprehensible responses,” said yee hui yeo, first author of the study and a clinical fellow in the karsh division of gastroenterology and hepatology at cedars-sinai. “however, this is one of the first studies to examine the ability of chatgpt to answer clinically oriented, disease-specific questions correctly and compare its performance to physicians and trainees.”

to test chatgpt’s knowledge of cirrhosis and liver cancer, the team presented the chatbot with 164 frequently asked questions that were divided into five categories: basic knowledge, diagnosis, treatment, lifestyle or preventive medicine. two liver transplant specialists graded the results.

according to investigators, chatgpt answered about 77 per cent of questions correctly, with high levels of accuracy in over 90 per cent of questions from different categories. however, the liver specialists who graded the answers found that 75 per cent of responses relating to basic knowledge, treatment and lifestyle categories were correct but inadequate. the proportion of answers that were “mixed with correct and incorrect data” was as follows: basic knowledge (22 per cent), diagnosis (33 per cent), treatment (25 per cent), lifestyle (18 per cent) and preventive medicine (50 per cent).

chatgpt also a tool for doctors

although the software was able to offer useful advice to patients and caregivers dealing with cirrhosis and liver cancer, the study made it clear that superior information comes from a doctor.

“more research is still needed to better examine the tool in patient education, but we believe chatgpt to be a very useful adjunctive tool for physicians — not a replacement — but adjunctive tool that provides access to reliable and accurate health information that is easy for many to understand,” spiegel said. “we hope that this can help physicians to empower patients and improve health literacy for patients facing challenging conditions such as cirrhosis and liver cancer.”

in an essay published in the new england journal of medicine late last week, peter lee, microsoft’s corporate vice president, research and incubations, said society has a choice to make when it comes to using chatgpt in the health care industry. “we can try to slow down or shut down this technology, because we don’t understand the risks completely,” lee said. “a second argument is more fatalist, saying: “it’s unstoppable. we might as well give it a try.

“a third choice, which i think is the only rational one, but it has to be made intentionally, is to think hard about how to integrate this technology into our lives so that we can be accomplishing things that neither humans nor ai alone can do. i’m hoping the medical community and the public will choose that third option.”

dave yasvinski is a writer with healthing.ca

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