Approved Research

Investigating novel genetic and environmental players on development of gastrointestinal diseases/ cancers; quantified their impacts or possible synergic effects to improve patient risk stratification

Lay summary

The etiology of gastrointestinal disease or cancer-related  has a complex nature which is a  lifelong  interaction of genetic predisposition and life environmental factors.  Although in recent years there has been clearness both on the genes and modifiable lifestyles involved other factors remain unknown. Identification of new biomarker is very important to make diagnosis. For instance in the IBD there is no single test  to provide a clear diagnosis, it is based on a combination together of clinical symptoms, laboratory assay, imaging tests and invasive test like colonoscopy. this translates into a misdiagnosis or delay-diagnosis up to several months. Regarding tumors, most of the time the event has no typical clinical manifestations or display only non-specific signs therefore early diagnosis can significantly improve the prognosis of patients. Lifestyle factors with a protective role against disease or cancer includes high physical activity, healthy diets with consumption of  fruits, vegetables, fish, dietary fiber and  vitamins.  Risk factors for development of diseases includes diet with higher consumption of red or processed meat, alcohol intake, tobacco smoke, obesity, diabetes mellitus. However studies on the other food groups like white meat, eggs, dairy products or taking into account psychosocial factors, work-related stressors, agents exposure, cognitive function etc are poor and they deserve to be investigated. Furthermore most of the studies quantifies their single impact on the disease without searching for possible synergic effects among factors. For instance approximately 66-77% of colorectal cancer has been suggested to be preventable by an appropriate combination of diet and physical activity. Generation hypothesis can be translate and verified by an appropriate statistical model that best describe the mechanism originating the observations. Over a 36-months period we try to find new interesting associations employing several suitable techniques mainly on classification problem, paying attention to the general interpretability and predictive performance. The statistical model generated may a useful tool in patient risk stratification since gastrointestinal diseases affect a large number of peoples it could capture a good share of better reclassified patients, implementing government policies and making also general practitioners aware of risk calculation addressing a lifestyle change in the patient thus to reduce the hospitalization rate.