Nutrition and esophageal cancer

Several case control studies in esophageal cancer employing a food‐frequency dietary questionnaire suggested a fairly uniform dietary pattern which could be implicated in the causation of the disease. Although various micronutrients (vitamins and trace elements) have also been found to have either a positive or negative association, findings were more clear‐cut for the different food items contributing the micronutrients than for the specific micronutrients themselves. The difficulties encountered in dietary interviews in case control studies are discussed. Nutritional supplementation has a theoretical rationale, but clinical experience with randomized trials did not support the same.