Project Brief / Introduction:

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in Vietnam, and most CRC cases develop from colorectal adenomas (CRAs), which are preventable if identified early. While traditional lifestyle risk factors such as diet, smoking, and obesity are well studied, emerging evidence suggests that sleep duration and quality may also play an important role in CRC risk. However, existing findings are inconsistent, largely due to unmeasured confounding and limited use of advanced causal inference methods. In addition, little is known about how psychological stress and anticipation of a cancer diagnosis affect cognition, mental health, and decision-making among high-risk individuals in Vietnam. Environmental exposures, such as microplastics, are another underexplored factor that may contribute to colorectal carcinogenesis.

​Together, these gaps limit the development of personalized, evidence-based prevention strategies that integrate biological, lifestyle, psychological, and environmental dimensions of CRC risk. This project aims to address these limitations using high-quality clinical data and rigorous analytic approaches.

Project Objectives:

The main objectives of the SLEEP-CRC project are to:

• Examine the association between sleep duration and quality and the prevalence of colorectal adenomas and colorectal cancer in a Vietnamese clinical population.

• Assess the relationship between a healthy lifestyle index-including diet quality (Planetary Health Diet Index), physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, and body composition and colorectal adenoma/cancer risk.

• Evaluate the psychological and cognitive impact of anticipating a colorectal cancer diagnosis among high-risk individuals, focusing on mental health, cognition, and decision-making.

• Explore the presence and concentration of microplastics in stool samples and their association with colorectal adenomas and colorectal cancer.