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 case-control 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 univariate 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 non-carbonated beverages may play a protective role.