Abstract: Objective: To evaluate the response rate and tolerance in patients with advanced esophageal cancer who were treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy plus thalidomide. Methods:Sixty-five cases of eligible patients were ran -domly assigned to either the treatment group or the control group. Thirty-three cases were treated with concurrent chemora-diotherapy plus thalidomide (radiation dosage 60～70Gy and 5-FU plus cisplatin;oral administration of thalidomide at a dose of 100 mg/day daily for the first week, 200 mg/day daily for the second week, then continuously until the end of radia -tion therapy), while 32patients who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy were monitored as matched controls. The clini-cal effects and tolerance between the two groups were compared. Results: The response rate was 87.9% in the treatment group vs.68.7% in the control group (P>0.05);the local control rate was 93% in the treatment group vs. 91% in the control group (P>0.05); the 1 year survival rate was 74.0% in the treatment group vs. 63.0% in the control group (P>0.05);The im -provement rates of KPS score in the treatment group and control group were 57.6% and 31.3% , respectively (P<0.05). More severe nausea and vomiting were present in the control group (P <0.05), while constipation, somnolence and fatigue  were more significant in the treatment group (P<0.05). Conclusion: Concurrent chemoradiotherapy combined with Thalido-mide, being effective and well tolerated, can improve the life quality of patients with advanced esophageal cancer and may have the potential to prolong the survival rate; however, further study is needed.