Independent and opposing associations of dietary phytosterols intake and PLCE1 rs2274223 polymorphisms on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma risk

Purpose This study was to evaluate the associations of dietary intake of total and specific phytosterols and risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and to explore their joint effects with PLCE1 rs2274223 polymorphisms. Methods A population-based case–control study was conducted in a Chinese rural population and 856 eligible incident ESCC cases and 856 controls were included. A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to collect dietary consumption and PLCE1 rs2274223 polymorphisms were genotyped. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were assessed via logistic regression model. Results When comparing the highest with lowest intake quartiles, β-sitosterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitostanol, campestanol, and total phytosterols were all associated with a decreased risk of ESCC, with adjusted ORs being 0.32 (95% CI 0.20–0.48), 0.18 (95% CI 0.11–0.27), 0.45 (95% CI 0.29–0.70), 0.13 (95% CI 0.08–0.20), 0.14 (95% CI 0.09–0.22) and 0.28 (95% CI 0.18–0.43), respectively. An exposure—response relationship was also observed for both total and five specific phytosterols (all P for trend