[Preliminary study on nutrition and precancerous lesions of the esophagus in the adolescents].

This paper reports the prevalence of chronic esophagitis and nutritional status among 538 persons 15-26 years old in the high-risk area of esophageal cancer. 166 subjects were from households with history of esophageal cancer while 372 from households without. The frequency of chronic esophagitis among male and female adolescents in the high risk areas (37.6% and 36%) was significantly, higher than that in the low risk areas. Furthermore, the frequency of chronic esophagitis in the adolescents in households with history of esophageal cancer was also higher than that without history of this cancer. There was a positive correlation between avitaminosis C and chronic esophagitis. Suffering from avitaminosis C and B2, these people are prone to develop chronic esophagitis which, in turn, may serve as an early phase in the carcinogenesis of esophageal epithelium.