We conducted a hospital-based, case–control study to examine the association between dietary patterns and the risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Iran.

A total of forty-seven patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma and ninety-six controls underwent face-to-face interviews. Factor analysis was used to detect dietary patterns. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate OR and 95 % CI.

We defined two major dietary patterns in this population: ‘healthy diet’ (high in vegetables, nuts, fruits, low-fat dairy and fish) and ‘western diet’ (high in solid oil, sugar, sweets, tea, eggs, pickles and processed meat). Both healthy and western pattern scores were divided into two categories (based on medians). Higher healthy pattern scores were significantly associated with decreased risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (high: second median v. low: first median, OR = 0·17, 95 % CI 0·19, 0·98). An increased risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma was observed with the western pattern (high: second median v. low: first median, OR = 10·13, 95 % CI 8·45, 43·68).

The results of the present study suggested that diet might be associated with oesophageal carcinoma.