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Blood, Retinol and Zinc Riboflavin Status in Relation to Precancerous Lesions of the Esophagus: Findings from a Vitamin Intervention Trial in the People's Republic of China¹

German Cancer Research Center, Institute of Epidemiology and Biometry, D-6900 Heidelberg 1, Federal Republic of Germany [J. W.]; International Agency for Research on Cancer, 150 Cours Albert Thomas, 69372 Lyon Cedex 08, France [N. M., F. X. B.]; Department of Epidemiology, Henan Cancer Institute, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, People's Republic of China [L. J-B.]; Clinical Investigation Unit, Dudley Road Hospital, Birmingham B18 7QH and Wolfson Research Laboratories, Queen Elizabeth Medical Centre, Birmingham B15 2TH, United Kingdom [D. I. T.]; and Institute Regina Elena, Viale Regina Elena 291, 00161 Rome, Italy [M. C.]

Data from a double-blind intervention trial in China are reanalyzed to explore auxiliary information. The trial had shown that in a high-risk area for esophageal cancer the dietary supplementation of apparently healthy individuals with a combination of retinol, riboflavin, and zinc did not lead to a different prevalence of precancerous lesions of the esophagus among those receiving the active treatment compared to a placebo group. However, improvement of blood retinol and zinc levels were also observed in the placebo group. The logistic regression analysis presented in this paper illustrates that those individuals who showed large increases in retinol, riboflavin, and zinc blood levels were more likely to have a histologically normal esophagus at the end of the trial. This effect is clearer for retinol than for riboflavin and zinc and it is independent of whether the change was caused by the active treatment or occurred otherwise.

¹ Presented at the Fifth Symposium on Epidemiology and Cancer Registries in the Pacific Basin, November 16–21, 1986, Kauai, HI.

Received 6/10/87. Revised 12/30/87. Accepted 1/18/88.