Dietary Inflammatory Index and Risk of Esophageal Squamous Cell Cancer in a Case-Control Study from Iran

Diet and inflammation have been suggested to be important risk factors for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In this study, we examined the ability of the dietary inflammatory index (DII) to predict ESCC in a case-control study conducted in Iran. This study included 47 ESCC cases and 96 controls hospitalized for acute nonneoplastic diseases. The DII was computed based on dietary intake assessed by a previously validated food frequency questionnaire. Logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) adjusted for age, energy, sex, body mass index, years of education, physical activity, smoking and gastroesophageal reflux. Subjects with higher DII scores (i.e., with a more proinflammatory diet) had a higher risk of ESCC, with the DII being used as both a continuous variable [ORcontinuous = 3.58, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.76-7.26; one unit increase corresponding to ≈16% of its range in the current study] and a categorical variable (ORdii>1.20 vs ≤1.20 = 8.24, 95% CI: 2.03-33.47). These results indicate that a proinflammatory diet is associated with increased risk of ESCC.