A recent GWASs of cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract (UADT) (i.e., cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, and esophagus) identified SNP rs1229984 in ADH1B as a risk variant for esophageal cancer in samples with European ancestry (McKay et al. 2011). This variant is present in as many as 70 to 80 percent of people in Asian populations (Han et al. 2007; Kosoy et al. 2009) but is found in less than 5 percent of European populations. Nevertheless, it is by far the strongest genetic variant that alters the risk for the development of UADT cancer, even after accounting for alcohol consumption. Variants in other alcohol-metabolizing genes also have been implicated in the development of esophageal cancer.
