Abstract： Objective To establish reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) with primers specific for CEA gene and CK20 gene to detect circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of esophageal cancer pa-tients,and try to find the relationship between the mRNA expression and micrometastasis. Methods The expressions of CEA,CK20 were analyzed by RT-PCR in 53 cases of esophageal tumor tissue and in peripheral blood,compared with 10 patients with benign esophageal disease and 20 healthy volunteers. Results The expressions of CEA-mRNA, CK20-mRNA were 96.23% (51/53), 100% ( 53/53 ) in 53 esophageal tumor tissue and were 52.83% (28/53), 49.06% (26/53) in peripheral blood of 53 esophageal cancer patients. In control group,there was only one expression of CEA-mRNA in peripheral blood of 10 patients with benign esophageal disease,as well as in 20 healthy volunteers. There was no expression of CK20-mRNA in peripheral blood of 10 patients with benign esophageal disease and 20 healthy volunteers. Conclusion CEA-mRNA, CK20-mRNA might be specific and sensitive markers to detect circu-lating tumor cells in peripheral blood and their expression was closely related to TNM stages of the esophageal cancer patients.