Innovations Teams
Sustainable Lifestyle and Cancer Team (SLC)

Starting date: January 2021

Work Programme

The overall goal of the Sustainable Lifestyle and Cancer Team (SLC) is to conduct research on lifestyle factors, including nutrition, physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep, and stress, and to investigate their role in cancer development, also considering their environmental impact, often called “co-benefits”.

SLC develops innovative methods that will help researchers to tailor lifestyle assessment tools. SLC will also guide the design of intervention studies to implement sustainable behaviour changes for cancer prevention. This programme will be achieved via three integrated activities:

1. enhancing existing databases of epidemiological studies with innovative indicators of dietary and lifestyle habits, including scores expressing food biodiversity, food processing, meal timing, circadian rhythm, sleep, and stress, and their environmental impact indicators, such as greenhouse gas emissions;
2. assisting with the design of cohort and case–control studies in high-, middle-, and low-income settings characterized by lifestyle transitions;
3. developing sustainable interventions on lifestyle behaviour changes and evaluating their efficacy for cancer prevention (e.g. the LIFE-SCREEN intervention, as part of the colorectal cancer screening programme in France).

Figure: Schematic presentation of SLC activities and tools applied

The various indicators have been evaluated in validation studies where reference methods and exposure biomarkers were also used. These validation studies were set up in close collaboration with other Research Teams in NME. SLC also collaborates closely with Laboratory Support, Biobanking, and Services (LSB) to set up new studies. The IARC-IIPAN programme on nutrition and childhood cancer, an initiative co-led with the International Initiative for Pediatrics and Nutrition (IIPAN), aims to investigate the link between nutritional status and lifestyle factors and clinical outcomes in children and adolescents with cancer.

Team Composition

Team Leader: Dr Inge Huybrechts, Nutrition and Metabolism Branch (NME), IARC
Email: HuybrechtsI@iarc.who.int

Team members:
Dr Agnès Fournier (Visiting Scientist, NME; INSERM CESP)
Dr Aline Al Nahas (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Ms Elodie Faure (Visiting Scientist, NME; INSERM CESP)
Dr Esther Gonzalez Gil (Visiting Scientist, NME)
Ms Genevieve Nicolas (Data Manager, NME)
Dr Inarie Jacobs (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Ms Elizabeth Page (Administrative Assistant, NME)
Dr Mohamed Khalis (Visiting Scientist, NME; Mohammed VI University of Health Sciences, Casablanca, Morocco)
Dr Pekka Keski-Rahkonen (Scientist, NME)
Dr Pietro Ferrari (Branch Head, NME)
Dr Rita Khoueiry (Scientist, ENV)
Dr Shiny M. Lizia (Postdoctoral Scientist, NME)
Ms Tracy Wootton (Project Assistant, NME/LSB)

Key networks: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), International Initiative for Pediatrics and Nutrition (IIPAN), Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence (HELENA), Identification and Prevention of Dietary- and Lifestyle-Induced Health Effects in Children and Infants (IDEFICS)

Key funding: Institut national du Cancer (INCa), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail (ANSES), Agence nationale de la Recherche (ANR), International Initiative for Pediatrics and Nutrition (IIPAN), Cancer Research UK (CRUK), European Commission (EC)

Key publications

1. Perganti F, Huybrechts I, Balduzzi AC, Barr R, Biondi A, Bladé AL, et al. (2025). Southern European Prospective Investigation into Childhood Cancer and Nutrition (EPICkids): study design and protocol. PLoS One. 20(9):e0319110. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319110 PMID:40911561
2. Berden J, Chimera B, Hanley-Cook GT, Cakmak EK, Vineis P, Nicolas G, et al. (2025). Biodiverse diets present co-benefits for greenhouse gas emissions, land use, mortality rates and nutritional adequacy in Europe. Nat Food. 6(9):857–67. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01214-y PMID:40835792
3. Chimera B, Cakmak EK, Blanco-Lopez J, Berden J, Biessy C, Keski-Rahkonen P, et al. (2025). Metabolic profile of biodiverse diets in a healthy European cohort. Am J Clin Nutr. 122(1):208–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2025.04.016 PMID:40500642
4. Mohan A, Huybrechts I, Michels N (2022). Psychosocial stress and cancer risk: a narrative review. Eur J Cancer Prev. 31(6):585–99. https://doi.org/10.1097/CEJ.0000000000000752 PMID:35352705
5. Huybrechts I, Chimera B, Hanley-Cook GT, Biessy C, Deschasaux-Tanguy M, Touvier M, et al. (2024). Food biodiversity and gastrointestinal cancer risk in nine European countries: analysis within a prospective cohort study. Eur J Cancer. 210:114258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2024.114258 PMID:39168001
6. Kliemann N, Rauber F, Bertazzi Levy R, Viallon V, Vamos EP, Cordova R, et al. (2023). Food processing and cancer risk in Europe: results from the prospective EPIC cohort study. Lancet Planet Health. 7(3):e219–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(23)00021-9 PMID:36889863
7. Huybrechts I, Jacobs I, Biessy C, Aglago EK, Jenab M, Claeys L, et al. (2024). Associations between dietary mycotoxins exposures and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in a European cohort. PLoS One. 19(12):e0315561. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0315561 PMID:39680546
8. Cairat M, Severi G, Huybrechts I, Fournier A (2025). Ingestion of titanium dioxide as an excipient in medicines and the risk of cancer: a nationwide study within the French National health data system. Eur J Epidemiol. 40(7):833–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-025-01263-4 PMID:40601245
9. Elattabi C, Lamchabbek N, Boutayeb S, Belyamani L, Huybrechts I, Faure E, et al. (2025). The impact of travel distance on cancer stage at diagnosis for cancer: a systematic review. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 22(4):518. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22040518 PMID:40283744
10. Lamchabbek N, Mane N, Mrah S, Elattabi C, Ourrad Z, Chimera B, et al. (2025). Dietary patterns and breast cancer risk: a large-scale case control study among Moroccan women. Eur J Nutr. 65(1):10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-025-03840-5 PMID:41417097