Abstract
Among 104 cases of squamous-cell oesophageal carcinoma patients and 277 controls in Taiwan, after adjusting for cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, and other confounders, we found that subjects who chewed from 1 to 495 betel-year and more than 495 betel-years (about 20 betel quid per day for 20 years) had 3.6-fold (95% Cl = 1.3–10.1) and 9.2-fold risk (95% Cl = 1.8–46.7), respectively, of developing oesophageal cancer, compared to those who did not chew betel. © 2001 Cancer Research Campaign www.bjcancer.com
Similar content being viewed by others
Article PDF
Change history
16 November 2011
This paper was modified 12 months after initial publication to switch to Creative Commons licence terms, as noted at publication
References
Bhide, SV, Zariwala, MBA, Amonkar, AJ & Azuine, MA (1991). Chemopreventive efficacy of a betel leaf extract against benzo[ a ]pyrene-induced forestomach tumors in mice. J Ethnopharmacol, 34, 207–213.
Borchert, P, Wislocki, PG, Miller, JA & Miller, EC (1973). The metabolism of the naturally occurring hepatocarcinogen safrole to 1′-hydroxysafrole and the electrophilic reactivity of 1′-acetoxysafrole. Cancer Res, 33, 575–589.
Chen, CL, Chi, CW, Chang, KW & Liu, TY (1999). Safrole-like DNA in oral tissue from oral cancer patients with a betel quid chewing history. Carcinogenesis, 20, 2331–2334.
Department of Health Republic of China (1999). “Health Statistics: II. Vital Statistics.”, Department of Health: Taipei
Hastie, TJ & Tibshirani, RJ (1990). Generalized additive models, New York, Chapman & Hall
Ioannides, C, Delaforge, M & Parke, DV (1981). Safrole: Its metabolism, carcinogenicity and interactions with cytochrome p-450. Fd Cosmet Toxicol, 19, 657–666.
Jussawalla, DJ (1981). Oesophageal cancer in India. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol, 99, 29–33.
Ko, YC, Chiang, TA, Chang, SJ & Hsief, SF (1992). Prevalence of betel quid chewing habit in Taiwan and related socio-demographic factors. J Oral Pathol Med, 21, 261–264.
Ko, YC, Huang, YL, Lee, CH, Chen, MJ, Lin, LM & Tsai, CC (1995). Betel quid chewing, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption related to oral cancer in Taiwan. J Oral Pathol Med, 24, 450–453.
Liu, CJ, Chen, CL, Chang, KW, Chu, CH & Liu, TY (2000). Safrole in betel quid may be a risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma: case report. CMAJ, 162, 359–360.
Nandakumar, A, Anantha, N, Pattabhiraman, V, Prabhakaran, PS, Dhar, M, Puttaswamy, K, Venugopal, TC, Reddy, NM & Rajanna Vinutha, AT Srinivas (1996). Importance of anatomical subsite in correlating risk factors in cancer of the oesophagus-report of a case-control study. Br J Cancer, 73, 1306–1311.
Pottern, LM, Morris, LE & Blot, WJ (1981). Esophageal cancer among Black men in Washington, DC. I. Alcohol, tobacco and other risk factors. J Natl Cancer Inst, 67, 777–783.
Ramchandani, AG, D’Souza, AV, Borges, AM & Bhisey, RA (1998). Evaluation of carcinogenic/co-carcinogenic activity of a common chewing product, pan masala, in mouse skin, stomach and esophagus. Int J Cancer, 75, 225–232.
Randerath, K, Haglund, RE, Phillips, DH & Reddy, MV (1984). 32P-post-labelling analysis of DNA adducts formed in the livers of animal treated with safrole, estragole and other naturally-occurring alkenylbenzenes. I. Adult female CD-1 mice. Carcinogenesis, 5, 1613–1622.
Reddy, MV & Randerath, K (1990). A comparison of DNA adduct formation in white blood cells and internal organs of mice exposed to benzo[ a ]pyrene, dibenzo[ c, g ]carbazole, safrole and cigarette smoke condensate. Mutat Res, 241, 37–48.
SAS Institute Inc. (1988). SAS ® Language Guide for Personal Computers, Release 6.03 Edition, Cary, NC, SAS Institute Inc.
Tavani, A, Negri, E, Franceschi, S & Vecchia, CL (1993). Risk factors for esophageal cancer in women in Northern Italy. Cancer, 72, 2531–2536.
Yu, MC, Garabrant, DH, Peters, JM & Mack, TM (1988). Tobacco, alcohol, diet, occupation and carcinoma of the esophagus. Cancer Res, 48, 3845–3848.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
From twelve months after its original publication, this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
About this article
Cite this article
Wu, MT., Lee, YC., Chen, CJ. et al. Risk of betel chewing for oesophageal cancer in Taiwan. Br J Cancer 85, 658–660 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.1927
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1054/bjoc.2001.1927
Keywords
This article is cited by
-
The association between alcohol, betel nut, and cigarette use with hepatitis C virus infection in Taiwan
Scientific Reports (2023)
-
YAP1 acts as a negative regulator of pro-tumor TAZ expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Cellular Oncology (2022)
-
Update on Management of Squamous Cell Esophageal Cancer
Current Oncology Reports (2022)
-
Areca catechu-(Betel-nut)-induced whole transcriptome changes in a human monocyte cell line that may have relevance to diabetes and obesity; a pilot study
BMC Endocrine Disorders (2021)
-
Neck Lymph Node Metastasis as A Poor Prognostic Factor in Thoracic Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Receiving Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis
Scientific Reports (2018)