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By Nancy Lapid, Health Science Editor

Hello Health Rounds readers! Today we look at the ability of much talked-about artificial intelligence ChatGPT to answer questions about breast cancer screening. We also highlight the genetic “compromise” between pregnant mother and unborn baby about when it’s time for baby to enter the world, and an experimental patch that appears to control chronic underarm sweating with just a few minutes of application.

In breaking news, see these stories from our Reuters journalists: Bill Gates says world making ‘huge mistake’ not funding new TB vaccines; WHO says infertility affects 17% globally; and U.S. to build $300 mln database for Alzheimer’s research.

With a holiday weekend coming up for many of us, there won’t be a Health Rounds edition on Thursday. We’ll see you next week!

Mom’s genes and unborn baby’s genes must “strike a deal” on timing of birth, researchers say. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir.

Faced with 25 questions about breast cancer screening, the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT answered most of them correctly but also gave some inaccurate information, researchers found.

Doctors at the University of Maryland submitted each question to ChatGPT three times. The responses were appropriate for 22 questions, or 88%. But one question was answered incorrectly with outdated information, and two other questions had inconsistent responses that varied significantly each time the same question was posed, the researchers reported on Tuesday in Radiology.

The appropriate responses cited American Cancer Society recommendations but did not mention differing guidelines from the American College of Radiology or the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the researchers said.

They noted that while ChatGPT has the benefit of summarizing information into an easily digestible form for consumers to understand, its responses are not as comprehensive as what a person would normally find on a Google search.

“ChatGPT has great potential to automate provisions of accurate healthcare information related to breast cancer prevention and screening,” the researchers concluded. “However, physician oversight when using these tools is critical, given the presence of inappropriate and inconsistent responses.”

Read more about ChatGPT on Reuters.com

• What is Generative AI, the technology behind OpenAI’s ChatGPT?
• GM explores using ChatGPT in vehicles
• Europol sounds alarm about criminal use of ChatGPT

Duration of pregnancy is controlled by genetics, but genes of the mother and baby have a conflict of interest, researchers have discovered. 

The woman’s genes favor earlier onset of labor to expel the child, for an easier delivery and her own survival, while the genes of the unborn child favor extension of the pregnancy to gain weight, the team from Gothenburg University in Sweden reported on Monday in Nature Genetics.

The two sets of genes “reach a kind of compromise deal,” said study leader Pol Sole Navais, in a statement.

His team is studying the genetics of pregnancy to lay the groundwork for developing drugs to prevent preterm delivery and, when necessary, to induce labor and delivery. Working with an international network of 90 colleagues, they have data from nearly 280,000 births.

The new findings “have given us more routes to understanding how labor is initiated, both at full term and in premature labor,” senior author Dr. Bo Jacobsson said in a statement.

“We were able to identify numerous previously undiscovered genetic variants associated with the timing of (childbirth), and these provide unmatched insights into the underlying biological mechanisms.”

An experimental sweat-control patch significantly reduces excessive underarm sweating after being applied for just a few minutes, researchers reported at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology.

The patch, developed by Candesant Biomedical, is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

If approved, it “has the potential to set a new standard of care for the treatment of primary axillary hyperhidrosis, or excessive underarm sweating,” Dr. David Pariser of Eastern Virginia Medical School, who presented the study findings at the meeting, said in a statement.

In a trial involving 100 volunteers whose underarm sweating frequently or always interfered with their daily activities, healthcare providers applied the single-use disposable sweat control patch or a sham patch for up to three minutes for each armpit.

Four weeks later, reductions in underarm perspiration were significantly greater in the treatment group compared with the placebo group. Patch treated subjects also reported significantly greater reductions in the extent to which their underarm sweating bothers them and impacts their daily activities.

The patch consists of a sodium sheet with an adhesive overlay. Heat is generated when the sodium comes into contact with water in sweat. “The thermal energy… is precisely localized, microtargeting sweat glands to significantly reduce sweat production,” according to the company.

This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot.

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