# Integrated Epidemiologic Study of Ultra-processed Foods and Colorectal Cancer Survival

> **NIH NIH K00** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · 2024 · $103,707

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT 
Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a leading cause of cancer deaths in the US and is one of the cancers most 
strongly associated with a suboptimal diet. Within various dietary components, ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are 
emerging as an increasingly important risk factor for CRC. UPFs make up nearly 60% of Americans’ daily 
calories. A high UPF intake may increase CRC risk or worsen its prognosis through altered metabolites that may 
impact glycemic or inflammatory responses, or tumor microenvironment, resulting in cancer progression. Food 
processing may also introduce carcinogens and certain UPF components can contribute to somatic mutations. 
Besides, a high UPF intake is associated with excess intake of calories, leading to adiposity, an established risk 
factor for CRC. Thus, UPFs could be an important dietary risk factor for CRC progression and yet the UPF-CRC 
survival has not been adequately studied. While evidence suggests that CRC progression is associated with 
metabolites modulated by diet, the metabolomic profiles associated with UPFs remain to be characterized. 
Constituents of UPFs such as red or processed meats have been related to alkylating DNA damage and 
increased CRC mortality, yet the role of UPFs remains unclear. These unknowns highlight the critical need to 
comprehend the association between UPFs and CRC survival and the molecular determinants of this relationship 
for improving long-term CRC survivorship. Well-established large prospective cohort studies are crucial to 
offering rigorous data to elucidate the diet-disease association and infer causality. Advances in high-throughput 
metabolomic profiling and whole-exome sequencing (WES) show great promise to identify sensitive biomarkers 
that could better predict the diet-disease relationships. The overarching research goal of this F99/K00 proposal 
is to investigate the role of UPFs in CRC survival by integrating high throughput -omics and detailed dietary data 
collected among men and women from large cohorts. The F99 phase will focus on investigating the association 
between UPF intake and deaths due to CRC and all causes among CRC survivors (Aim 1); the K00 phase will 
shift the focus to investigating the molecular correlates of UPF-CRC survival relationship by integrating 
metabolomics profiling and tumor WES data and exploring the feasibility of a pilot intervention to reduce UPF 
intake among CRC patients (Aim 2). The research findings will inform dietary recommendations for CRC 
survivors, accelerate the discovery of novel biomarkers to pave the way for precision nutrition in oncology care, 
and provide new insights into nutrition interventions for improving the long-term survivorship of CRC. Under the 
mentorship of sponsors at Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Harvard T.H. Chan School 
of Public Health, the candidate will acquire rigorous research training and professional and career development 
skills for trans...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10880643
- **Project number:** 5K00CA274714-03
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** Mengxi Du
- **Activity code:** K00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $103,707
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-08-01 → 2025-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10880643

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10880643, Integrated Epidemiologic Study of Ultra-processed Foods and Colorectal Cancer Survival (5K00CA274714-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10880643. Licensed CC0.

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