Background: In the 2007 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research Second Expert Report, the expert panel judged that there was strong evidence that alcoholic drinks and body fatness increased esophageal cancer risk, whereas fruits and vegetables probably decreased its risk. The judgments were mainly based on case-control studies. As part of the Continuous Update Project (CUP), we updated the scientific evidence accumulated from cohort studies in this topic.

Methods: We updated the CUP database up to 10 January, 2017 by searching in PubMed and conducted dose-response meta-analyses to estimate summary relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using random effects model.

Results: A total of 57 cohort studies were included in 13 meta-analyses. Esophageal adenocarcinoma risk was inversely related to vegetable intake (RR per 100 g/day: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.80-0.99, n = 3) and directly associated with body mass index (BMI) (RR per 5 kg/m²: 1.47, 95%…