Assessing the role of ultra-processed foods in colorectal cancer incidence: insights from the EPIC cohort

Jeroen Berden; Oliver Langselius; Esther M González-Gil; Jessica Blanco Lopez; Geneviève Nicolas; Bernard Srour; Christopher Millett; Eszter P Vamos; Harriet Rumgay; Kiara Chang; Mathilde Touvier; Alicia K Heath; Cecilie Kyrø; Chloé Marques; Franziska Jannasch; Matthias B Schulze; Matteo Franco; Ana M Jimenez Zabala; Anne Tjønneland; Carla H van Gils; Charlotte Le Cornet; Claire Cadeau; Marcela Guevara; Maria-José Sanchez; Mariem Hajji-Louati; Marta Crous-Bou; Rosario Tumino; Valeria Pala; Verena Katzke; Guri Skeie; Paolo Vineis; Pietro Ferrari; Vivian Viallon; Inge Huybrechts

doi:10.1186/s12889-026-27225-3

Assessing the role of ultra-processed foods in colorectal cancer incidence: insights from the EPIC cohort

BMC Public Health. 2026 Apr 22. doi: 10.1186/s12889-026-27225-3. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Jeroen Berden^{1

2}, Oliver Langselius³, Esther M González-Gil⁴, Jessica Blanco Lopez⁴, Geneviève Nicolas⁴, Bernard Srour⁵, Christopher Millett^{6

7}, Eszter P Vamos⁶, Harriet Rumgay³, Kiara Chang⁶, Mathilde Touvier⁵, Alicia K Heath⁸, Cecilie Kyrø⁹, Chloé Marques¹⁰, Franziska Jannasch¹¹, Matthias B Schulze^{11

12}, Matteo Franco¹³, Ana M Jimenez Zabala^{14

15}, Anne Tjønneland^{9

16}, Carla H van Gils¹⁷, Charlotte Le Cornet¹⁸, Claire Cadeau¹⁰, Marcela Guevara^{19

20

21}, Maria-José Sanchez^{20

22

23}, Mariem Hajji-Louati¹⁰, Marta Crous-Bou^{24

25}, Rosario Tumino²⁶, Valeria Pala²⁷, Verena Katzke¹⁸, Guri Skeie²⁸, Paolo Vineis⁸, Pietro Ferrari⁴, Vivian Viallon⁴, Inge Huybrechts⁴

Affiliations

¹ Nutrition and Metabolism Branch, International Agency for Research On Cancer, Section of Nutrition and Metabolism, 25 Avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, CEDEX 07, France. jeroen.berden@ugent.be.
² Department of Food Technology, Safety and Health, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. jeroen.berden@ugent.be.
³ Cancer Surveillance Branch, International Agency for Research On Cancer, Lyon, France.
⁴ Nutrition and Metabolism Branch, International Agency for Research On Cancer, Section of Nutrition and Metabolism, 25 Avenue Tony Garnier, CS 90627, 69366, Lyon, CEDEX 07, France.
⁵ Centre of Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team (EREN), Université Sorbonne Paris Nord and Université Paris Cité, INSERM, INRAE, CNAM, Bobigny, F-93017, France.
⁶ Public Health Policy Evaluation Unit, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁷ NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Centre, Comprehensive Health Research Center, CHRC, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
⁸ Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research Unit, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁹ Danish Cancer Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁰ Paris-Saclay University, UVSQ, Inserm, Gustave Roussy, CESP, Villejuif, France.
¹¹ Department of Molecular Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal, Germany.
¹² Institute of Nutritional Science, University of Potsdam, Nuthetal, Germany.
¹³ Department of Clinical and Biological Sciences, University of Turin, Orbassano, Turin, Italy.
¹⁴ Ministry of Health of the Basque Government, Sub-Directorate for Public Health and Addictions of Gipuzkoa, San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain.
¹⁵ Biogipuzkoa Health Research Institute, Group of Epidemiology of Chronic and Communicable Diseases, San Sebastián, Gipuzkoa, Spain.
¹⁶ Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
¹⁷ Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center, Utrecht University, Utrecht, GA, the Netherlands.
¹⁸ Division of Cancer Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
¹⁹ Instituto de Salud Pública y Laboral de Navarra, Pamplona, 31003, Spain.
²⁰ CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain.
²¹ Navarra Institute for Health Research (IdiSNA), Pamplona, 31008, Spain.
²² Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública (EASP), Granada, 18011, Spain.
²³ Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria ibs. GRANADA, Granada, 18012, Spain.
²⁴ Unit of Nutrition and Cancer, Cancer Epidemiology Research Program, Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) - Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, 08908, Spain.
²⁵ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
²⁶ Hyblean Association for Epidemiology Research, AIRE ONLUS Ragusa, Ragusa, Italy.
²⁷ Epidemiology and Prevention Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori di Milano, Milan, Italy.
²⁸ Department of Community Medicine, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway.

PMID: 42021246
DOI: 10.1186/s12889-026-27225-3

No abstract available

Keywords: Cancer epidemiology; Cohort-attributable fraction (CAF); Colorectal cancer (CRC); EPIC cohort; Food processing; Ultra-processed foods (UPF).