Performance of DeepSeek V3 and ChatGPT-4o in answering esophageal cancer-related questions

Esophageal cancer remains a significant global health issue. ChatGPT-4o and DeepSeek V3 can provide the public with health-related knowledge about esophageal cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the accuracy of DeepSeek V3 and ChatGPT-4o in responding to health knowledge questions related to esophageal cancer. Fifty-two questions related to esophageal cancer were classified into themes of basic knowledge, diagnosis and molecular biology, management of local and locoregional diseases, management of advanced and metastatic diseases, clinical case analysis and patient frequently asked questions (FAQs). These questions were entered into DeepSeek V3 and ChatGPT-4o to obtain responses, and 2 experienced gastroenterologists independently evaluated the accuracy and temporal stability of each response. Overall, the scores of DeepSeek V3 and ChatGPT-4o on all questions were 4 (3-4), and there was no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups. The final scores of DeepSeek V3 in basic knowledge, diagnosis and molecular biology, management of local and locoregional diseases, management of advanced and metastatic diseases, clinical case analysis, and FAQs were 4 (3-4), 4 (3-4), 4 (3-4), 3 (3-4), 4 (4-4), and 4 (4-4), respectively, while the scores of ChatGPT-4o were 4 (3-4), 3 (2-4), 4 (3-4), 3 (3-4), 4 (4-4), and 4 (4-4), respectively. For temporal stability across 2 independent test runs, DeepSeek V3 presented inconsistent responses on 2 questions, and ChatGPT-4o on 1 question; no statistically significant differences were found in overall and subgroup scores between the 2 runs for both models (all P > .05). ChatGPT-4o and DeepSeek V3 showed favorable accuracy and comprehensive responses to most of the 52 esophageal cancer-related questions in this study, but our findings do not confirm their general reliability for esophageal cancer health information in routine clinical or public use.