Our group primarily focuses on elucidating early life or life course risk factors for cancer development later in life, with a specialty in colorectal neoplasia. Utilizing the well-established, large-scale Harvard cohorts — Nurses’ Health Study I, II and Health Professionals Follow-up Study — as well as clinical and epidemiologic data collected from the hospitals and medical institutions affiliated with Sungkyunkwan University, we seek to strengthen causal inference and generate the best possible epidemiologic evidence to help inform public health policies for effective colorectal cancer prevention, early detection and treatment.

The incidence of early-onset colorectal cancer has been markedly rising over the past few decades in high-income countries, including South Korea. We aim to generate comprehensive evidence on the link between diet, lifestyle factors (either established or novel) and risk of early-onset colorectal neoplasia. Some potential early-onset colorectal cancer risk factors Dr. Hur has investigated thus far include poor diet quality, sugar-sweetened beverages and hyperinsulinemic diet, all of which are among the first prospective epidemiologic evidence to date.