Another nested case–control study within a population of 128,992 enrolled in a public health program between 1964 and 1969, including 52 cases of esophageal cancer identified by the year 2000, found a nonsignificant correlation of high serum ghrelin with reduced risk of esophageal cancer in overweight subjects vs controls matched for age, race, sex and date/site of blood draw (P=0.09 for trend), adjusted for BMI and Helicobacter pylori infection (De Martel et al. 2007). This evidence concerns the gene GHRL and esophageal cancer.