Microsoft Finds Cancer Clues in Search Queries

 Microsoft scientists have shown that by analyzing large samples of queries in search engines that can in some cases be able to identify Internet users who are suffering from pancreatic cancer, even before receiving a diagnosis of the disease .

Scientists said they hope their work could lead to early detection of cancer. Their study was published Tuesday in The Journal of Oncology Practice by Dr. Eric Horvitz and Dr. Ryen White, researchers from Microsoft, and John Paparrizos, a graduate student at Columbia University.

"We asked, 'If we listen to the whispers of people online, should provide strong evidence or indication that something is going on?'" Dr. Horvitz said.

The researchers focused searches on Bing, the Microsoft search engine, indicating that someone had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. From there, they worked backward, looking for previous consultations that could have shown that the user Bing was experiencing symptoms before diagnosis. Those early searches, in his opinion, may be warning signs.

While the five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is very low, early detection of the disease can prolong life in a very small percentage of cases. This study suggests that early screening can be a five-year survival rate of pancreatic disease in 5 to 7 percent increase, from only 3%.

The researchers report that can be from 5 to 15 percent of the pancreas at a rate as low as one in 100,000 false positive identification. The researchers noted that false positives can be raised or create significant anxiety in medical costs for people who later realized they are not sick.

The data used by the researchers was anonymous, meaning it does not carry the marker identifying a user name, so that people do searches can not be contacted.

A logical next step would be to figure out what to do with the search.

"The question," What can we do? There may be a health Cortana some day? Doctor Horowitz, personal assistant speech in reference to online software services-oriented company, "said.

Although the researchers declined to provide specific details, white doctor now senior director of health information technology in a newly created Health division at Microsoft.

They acknowledged that the health-related data generated from Search History Web was still new territory for medical professionals.

Doctor Horowitz said: "I think this kind of conventional medical literature and studies and the type of data, have been resistant." "We hope that this aroused quite a bit of interesting conversation."

Both a computer scientist and medical doctor by training, doctor Horowitz said he was exploring the area in part because of a phone conversation with a close friend who had described the symptoms. Based on their conversation, Horowitz doctor advised him to contact his doctor. He received a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and died a few months later.

In 2009, Google released a research paper that has the potential for early detection of pandemic influenza based on statistical analysis of web search logs, though the results of these efforts ultimately fell short of what was hoped been released .

Microsoft researchers recently achieved remarkable success in finding preliminary evidence of adverse drug reactions have been observed patterns in Web logs. In 2013, they reported side effects of prescription drugs detected before they were found by the Food and Drug Administration warning system.

Researchers are investigating evidence of a range of devastating diseases. They also said that unlike drug interaction data, which is of direct value to the F.D.A. As an early warning, the warning signs may be possible as part of a wider online health services that a company like Microsoft may be provided.