A 27-year-old woman has shared how ChatGPT was instrumental in her blood cancer diagnosis.
Marly Garnreiter initially attributed her night sweats and itchy skin to anxiety and the grief following the loss of her father, Victor, who died of colon cancer at 58.
She observed weight loss as well, prompting her to input her symptoms into ChatGPT.
“I started to lose a lot of weight when he’d just passed away,” she mentioned.
“I kept eating normal amounts of food but I thought it must be the anxiety making me lose a lot of weight.”
“I’d accepted you lose weight with grief.”
Victor died in January 2024 after receiving a colon cancer diagnosis in 2022.
Marly, who works as a strategist in Paris, France, noted that her symptoms emerged shortly after his death, and although she underwent blood tests, the results were normal.
Her doctor supported the idea that grief was the cause, but as the symptoms persisted, Marly began to suspect something more serious.
She said, “I felt I was processing the grief well. I thought it must be something.”
“In May I sent a video to my friends, I had asked ChatGPT and it said I had blood cancer.”
“I ignored it. We were all skeptical and told to only consult real doctors.”
However, persistent fatigue and chest pressure led her back to her GP in January 2025.
Marly explained, “Around Christmas time I started to feel something was wrong. I had a constant pain in my chest. I was tired all the time.”
Her doctor found a ‘big mass’ on her left lung and referred her to a pulmonologist.
A biopsy confirmed her diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, on February 10, 2025.
Reflecting on her diagnosis, she expressed, “I felt a lot of anger. I felt like everything was unfair.”
“I didn’t want my family to go through this one more time.”
Marly opted for an egg retrieval process to freeze her eggs before starting treatment.
She noted, “I’m feeling confident for the future. It’s really important to listen to our bodies.”
“Sometimes we tend to lose our connection with our inner self. It’s important to be in tune.”
Marly began chemotherapy on March 1 and will undergo four to six cycles.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact the American Cancer Society on 1-800-227-2345 or via their live chat feature, available 24/7 every day of the year.
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact GrieveWell on (734) 975-0238, or email [email protected].