Our result showed that the Arg/Arg genotype of ADH1B Arg47His variant increased the esophageal cancer risk in male patients (OR = 3.44, 95 % CI = 2.42–4.89, P < 0.0001), while not in female patients (OR = 1.62, 95 % CI = 0.90–2.91, P = 0.11) as shown in Fig. 7. Here, ADH1B is linked to esophageal cancer.