Dietary
lignans,
quercetin and
resveratrol have oestrogenic properties, and animal studies suggest that they synergistically decrease
cancer risk. A protective effect of
lignans on the development of oesophageal
cancer in humans has recently been demonstrated, and the present study aimed to test whether these three
phytochemicals synergistically decrease the risk of oesophageal
cancer. Data from a Swedish nationwide population-based case-control study that recruited 181 cases of oesophageal
adenocarcinoma (OAC), 158 cases of
oesophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (OSCC), 255 cases of gastro-oesophageal junctional
adenocarcinoma (JAC) and 806 controls were analysed. Exposure data were collected through face-to-face interviews and questionnaires. The intake of
lignans,
quercetin and
resveratrol was assessed using a sixty-three-item FFQ. Reduced-rank regression was used to assess a dietary pattern, and a simplified dietary pattern score was categorised into quintiles on the basis of the distribution among the control subjects. Unconditional multivariable logistic regression provided OR with 95% CI, adjusted for all the potential risk factors. A dietary pattern rich in
lignans,
quercetin and
resveratrol was mainly characterised by a high intake of
tea, wine, lettuce, mixed vegetables, tomatoes, and whole-grain bread and a low intake of milk. There were dose-dependent associations between simplified dietary pattern scores and all types of oesophageal
cancer (all P for trend < 0.05). On comparing the highest quintiles with the lowest, the adjusted OR were found to be 0.24 (95% CI 0.12, 0.49) for OAC, 0.31 (95% CI 0.15, 0.65) for OSCC, and 0.49 (95% CI 0.28, 0.84) for JAC. The results of the present study indicate that a dietary pattern characterised by the intake of
lignans,
quercetin and
resveratrol may play a protective role in the development of oesophageal
cancer in the Swedish population.