阿富汗的赫拉特省位于亚洲食管癌带（AECB），这是一个横跨中亚和东亚的广阔地区，该地区的食管癌（EC）发病率非常高。以往的研究报告已经提及了AECB地区的几个风险因素。考虑到在阿富汗对该问题了解不足，我们开展了一项研究，旨在确定与EC相关的主要风险因素，以指导防护措施。我们在2015年7月至2016年8月期间，在赫拉特省对657名EC患者进行了一项基于人群的病例对照研究，并对180例组织病理学确认的病例和189例对照进行了面对面访谈。我们使用了结构化问卷，并进行了面对面的访谈。 单变量分析发现，低体重指数（BMI）、低社会经济地位、EC家族史、喝浓茶、喝非常热的饮料和食用qulurtoroosh与EC和食管鳞状细胞癌（ESCC）的发病呈显著性相关。多元分析显示，性别（OR=2.268；95% CI=1.238-4.153）、非常热的饮料（OR=2.253；95% CI=1.271-3.996）、qulurtoroosh（OR=5.679；95% CI=1.787-18.815）、浓茶（OR=2.757；95% CI=1.531-4.967）、较高的BMI（OR=0.215；95% CI=0.117-0.431）和低社会经济地位（OR=1.783；95% CI=1.007-3.177）与ESCC相关。男性被发现会增加ESCC的风险，OR为2.268（95% CI=1.238-4.153）。 饮用非常热的饮料、浓茶和当地食物qulurtoroosh是EC的重要风险因素。我们的发现需要进一步研究，并要求对该地区的EC实施保护措施，这是该地区主要的癌症之一。© 2022 作者。本文是一个开放获取文章，根据知识共享署名许可（https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0），原文可在任何媒体上自由使用、发布和重制，前提是对原作进行正确引用。

The Herat province of Afghanistan is located on the Asian Esophageal Cancer Belt (AECB), a wide area in Central and Eastern Asia where very high rates of esophageal cancer (EC) have been observed. Several risk factors have been reported in the AECB Region by previous studies. Considering lack of information in Afghanistan on this issue, a study was conducted to determine the major risk factors related to EC in order to guide protective measures.A population-based case-control study was performed from July 2015 to August 2016 among 657 EC patients in the Herat Province and 180 histopathological confirmed cases and 189 controls were interviewed. A structured questionnaire was used and face-to-face interviews were conducted.Low body mass index (BMI), low socio-economic status, family history of EC, consumption of dark tea, very hot beverage and qulurtoroosh were found to be statistically significant for EC and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) in univariate analyses. According to multivariate analyses, sex (OR=2.268; 95% CI=1.238-4.153), very hot beverages (OR=2.253; 95% CI=1.271- 3.996), qulurtoroosh (OR=5.679; 95% CI=1.787-18.815), dark tea (OR=2.757; 95% CI=1.531-4.967), high previous BMI (OR=0.215; 95% CI=0.117-0.431) and low socio-economic status (OR=1.783; 95% CI=1.007-3.177) were associated with ESCC. Being male was found to increase the risk of ESCC with OR=2.268 (95% CI=1.238-4.153).Consuming very hot beverages dark tea and a local food, qulurtoroosh, were found as important risk factors for EC. Our findings warrant further studies and necessitate the implementation of protective measures for EC which is one of the leading cancers in the region.© 2022 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.