Risk factors for esophageal cancer in Serbia

Abstract

Aim: To establish the role of specified risk factors in the etiology of squamous cell carcinoma of esophagus in Serbia. Methods: The hospital based casecontrol study included 102 newly diagnosed patients with squamous cell esophageal cancer and the same number of age and sex matched hospital controls. In the analysis of data conditional univarate and multivariate logistic regressions were applied. Results: The factors significantly related to cancer of esophagus were: smoking (OR=2.0, 95%CI 1.0-4.2), daily consumption of hard liquor (OR=7.5, 95%CI 2.8-20.0), low educational level (OR=4.7, 95%CI 2.2-10.0), occupational exposure to chemicals (OR=3.7, 95%CI 1.6-9.0), malignant tumors in family history (OR=3.6, 95%CI 1.6-9.0), consumption of wine (OR=0.1, 95%CI 0.1-0.3,) and non-carbonated beverages (OR=0.3, 95%CI 0.2-0.7). Conclusions: Hard liquor and tobacco appear to be the important risk factors for development of squamous cell esophageal cancer in Serbia, whereas wine and noncarbonated beverages may play a protective role. Copyright © 2007 by Indian Society of Gastroenterology.