Sitas, Freddy Egger, Sam Urban, Margaret I Taylor, Philip R Abnet, Christian C Boffetta, Paolo O'Connell, Dianne L Whiteman, David C Brennan, Paul Malekzadeh, Reza Pawlita, Michael Dawsey, Sanford M Waterboer, Tim eng N02-SC-66211/SC/NCI NIH HHS/ Cancer Research UK/United Kingdom Meta-Analysis Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't 2012/01/10 06:00 J Natl Cancer Inst. 2012 Jan 18;104(2):147-58. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djr499. Epub 2012 Jan 6. ; International audience ; BACKGROUND: The role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the causation of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma is unclear. We examined the associations between esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and 28 centrally measured HPV serological markers in serum from six existing case-control studies conducted in regions with differing background risks of esophageal cancer. METHODS: We used centralized multiplex serology to test serum samples from 1561 case subjects and 2502 control subjects from six case-control studies for antibodies to the major HPV capsid protein (L1) and/or the early proteins E6 and/or E7 of eight high-risk, two low-risk, and four cutaneous HPV types. Study-specific odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using conditional logistic regression with adjustment for smoking, alcohol consumption, and other potential confounders. Pooled odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using either a linear mixed-effects approach or a joint fixed-effects approach. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS: We found statistically significant associations between esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and antibodies to E6 for HPV16 (OR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.09 to 3.29, P = .023) and HPV6 (OR = 2.53, 95% CI = 1.51 to 4.25, P