Investigation of Some Possible Risk Factors for Esophageal Cancer in North Khorasan Province

Northern part of Iran is located on the esophagus cancer belt worldwide, and North Khorasan province is considered a part of this region. This study was conducted to investigate some possible risk factors for esophageal cancer in North Khorasan province.

This cross-sectional study was based on esophageal endoscopy findings and histopathology reports. A total of 100 patients underwent endoscopy of whom 38 cases (19 male and 19 female) were diagnosed with esophageal cancer. Data consisted of age, gender,  occupation, residential location, smoking, addiction history, education, food habits, hot tea consumption, lesion area, type of tissue, and alcohol consumption. The content and face validity of the questionnaire were investigated, followed by the evaluation of the reliability using Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software (version 26).

The mean content validity index was 0.91, and Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was obtained at 0.84. In this study, the highest incidence rates of esophageal cancer were in Bojnourd, Raz and Jargalan, Esfarayen, Maneh and Samolghan, Jajarm, and Shirvan in descending order. The mean age of patients with esophageal cancer was 66.36 years. The most common histological types of this cancer were related to squamous cell carcinoma (68.42%) and adenocarcinoma (28.94%), respectively. The distribution of esophageal carcinoma by anatomical location was 10.52% for the upper third, 26.31% for the middle third, and 63.15% for the distal third.

It is necessary to monitor esophageal cancer continuously in North Khorasan province. This study suggests investigating how the recent pandemic of COVID-19 affects the epidemiology of esophageal cancer in the future