After 10 y, the participants whose tissue samples had LOH of the short arms (p) of Chromosome 17 or 9 (the sites of the genes encoding TP53 and CDKN2A, respectively), or an altered DNA content, were more likely to have developed esophageal cancer than those without these abnormalities; those whose samples contained all three abnormalities had the highest risk of developing esophageal cancer. Here, CDKN2A is linked to esophageal cancer.