Abstract： Objective To investgae the reliability expression of p 53 in esophageal cancer and relationship between expression of p53 and the lymph node metastasis.Methods Collect pathological examination confirmed 154 cases of e-sophageal squamous cell carcinoma radical specimen of our department between 2011 January and 2013 December.A-mong them, 39 cases of highly differentiated squamous carcinoma , 56 cases of moderate differentiated squamous carcino-ma, 59 cases of poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma , through regular based dehydration、transparent、paraffin em-bedding、sectioning,and microscopically observed after HE staining with lymph node metastasis.The expression of p53 in the selective tumor tissue was detected by immunohistochemistry (S-P methods).Results In the 154 cases, the ex-pression of p53 was 41%in the highly differentiated squamous carcinoma , 54.2% in the moderate differentiated squa-mous carcinoma and 67.8%in the poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma.58 cases with lymph node metastasis were p53 positive, 29 cases with lymph node metastasis were p 53 negative.Each group by X2 test, X2value respectively were 2.4 and 1.38 in comparison of highly differentiated squamous carcinoma vs moderate differentiated squamous carcinoma and moderate differentiated squamous carcinoma vs poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma .The P>0.1 ,there were no statistically significant.But X2 value was 6.89 and P<0.01 in comparison of highly differentiated squamous carcinoma vs poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma , which did differ significantly.The rate of P53 positive associated with lymph node metastasis was significantly higher than the p 53 negative cases.By X2test, X2value was 6.89 and P<0.01, which did differ significantly.Conclusions p53 can be taken as a important indicators of the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.