Risk factors and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in residents of Guangzhou city were investigated in a case-control study: 104 cases were compared with an equal number of age, sex, and neighborhood-matched controls. The results of multiple conditional regression of logistic model showed that plum vegetable (adjusted OR = 1.81, 95% CI 1.01-3.33), preserved prune (adjusted OR = 2.95, 95% CI 1.04-8.41), no separate kitchen (if >35 years, adjusted OR = 1.98, 95% CI 1.24-3.75), kitchen range without chimney (if >10 years, adjusted OR = 2.72, 95% CI 1.56-4.73) and hereditary factor (adjusted OR = 8.27, 95% CI 1.93-35.54) were significantly associated with an increased risk of NPC. Grape (adjusted OR = 0.31,95% CI 0.17-0.58) may be a protective factor. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.