Researcher receives $2 million grant to study ultra-processed foods and cancer risk
Dr. Sharon Kirkpatrick (Public Health Sciences) is a co-principal investigator on a new $2 million team grant that will study how ultra-processed foods may affect colorectal cancer risk.
The project brings together a multi-provincial research team and is called UPFront (Ultra-Processed Foods and canceR: advancing evidence ON The biological mechanisms linking the gut microbiome, ultra-processed foods and cancer). The team is led by Dr. Rachel Murphy at the University of British Columbia and includes researchers from Université Laval, University of Calgary, B.C. Centre for Disease Control, B.C. Children’s Hospital Research Institute, as well as the Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, and others.
UPFront builds on large-scale diet, health and biospecimen data collected through the HEAL (HEALthy eating and supportive environments) and CHARM (CHARacterizing heterogeneity in dietary intake among structurally excluded populations using Multidimensional data) studies, on which Kirkpatrick is co-principal investigator.
The HEAL study is generating the largest collection of dietary data in Canada, while CHARM complements this work by collecting biospecimens (blood and stool) from a subset of HEAL participants. The data generated through these two studies, both of which are embedded in the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health, form the foundation that makes UPFront possible.
“To understand how diet affects health, we need data that reflect how people really eat in their everyday lives,” says Kirkpatrick. “The HEAL and CHARM studies are helping us capture that picture across diverse communities in Canada, creating new opportunities to study diet and disease in ways that weren’t possible before.”
UPFront is funded by the Canadian Cancer Society and the CIHR’s Institute of Cancer Research’s Bringing Biology to Cancer Prevention Team Grants program. HEAL and CHARM are supported by prior awards of $2.1 million from CIHR and BC Cancer and $2.2 million from CIHR and and Genome British Columbia, respectively.
March is Colorectal Cancer Awareness month, with a focus on Uniting for Equity Across the CRC Continuum. Colorectal cancer is the fourth-most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canada and remains a leading cause of cancer-related death, ranking second among men and third among women.