Because both protective gene variants are more common in Asian populations, several studies have demonstrated the influence of ADH1B*2 and ALDH2*2 on esophageal cancer in these populations (Ding et al. 2010; Hashibe et al. 2008). A meta-analysis of published studies on Asian populations (Yang et al. 2010) further confirmed that the potentially large effect of these gene variants on esophageal cancer was exacerbated by alcohol exposure.
