OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinicopathological features of esophageal carcinoma (EC) patients, and to analyze epidemiologic characteristics and the current situation of esophageal cancioma in the southern area of Hebei Province.METHODS A total of 4329 patients with esophageal cancinoma,undergoing surgery in the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University during a period from January 1996 to December 2005,were selected. Collection and statistical analysis of the pathologic data were performed using a SAS 6.0 software package.RESULTS Over the past ten years, there has been a tendency for an increase in the mean age of EC onset (P ＜ 0.05), a downtrend in the percentage of squamous cancer (SqCa) (P ＜ 0.05) and an uptrend in the frequency of small cell carcinoma (P ＜ 0.05). In clinical stages, there was a drop in the percentage of Stage-Ⅱsquamous EC patients (P ＜ 0.05), and an increase in that of Stage-Ⅳ patients (P ＜ 0.05). There were statistical differences in sex, age,pathologic types, depth of infiltration, ratio of stages and lymph node metastasis, etc. Among the superior, middle and inferior segments of the EC diseased region (P ＜ 0.05).CONCLUSION It was relatively late for the EC patients from this area to see a doctor, resulting in a drop in the ratio of SqCa and an ascensus in that of small cell cancer. However, due to a low incidence of adenocarcinoma, no obvious ascending tendency was found in the frequency of this carcinoma over the past ten years.