Abstract: Objective : To observe the status of lymphatic metastases from carcinoma of the esophagus and gastriccardia and to analyze the factors correlated with lymph node metastases. Methods : Clinical data from 1,526patients with carcinoma of the thoracic esophagus and gastric cardia seen in our hospital between January1996 and December 2004 were analyzed. Factors including the age, tumor location, tumor diameter, patholog-ical classification, the depth of tumor invasion, vascular tumor embolus, the involvement of other organs, andthe status of tumor residues were stratified and analyzed with SPSS13.0 software. Results : Carcinoma of theupper thoracic esophagus mainly metastasized to thoracic and cervical lymph nodes; carcinoma of the mid-dle-third thoracic esophagus metastasized bidirectionally; and carcinoma of the lower-third thoracic esopha-gus mainly metastasized to the lymph nodes of the lateral esophagus, lateral cardia and gastric artery. Thelymph node metastasis rate of lower-third esophageal cancer was higher than that of upper and middle-thirdesophageal cancer (P<0.0125). Compared with thoracic esophageal cancer, carcinoma of the gastric cardiachad a higher rate of metastasis to lymph nodes in the abdominal cavity, lateral cardia and gastric artery (P<0.05). No statistical significance was found in the metastasis to the lateral esophageal lymph nodes betweencarcinoma of the gastric cardia and thoracic esophageal carcinoma (P>0.05). Results of Multiple Factors Lo-gistic Regression Analysis showed that tumor diameter, the depth of tumor invasion, vascular tumor embolusand the status of carcinoma residues influenced the status of lymphatic metastasis. Conclusion : Upper tho-racic esophageal carcinoma mainly metastasizes to cervical and thoracic lymph nodes; middle-third thoracicesophageal carcinoma tends to extend bidirectionally; lower-third thoracic esophageal carcinoma mainlymetastasizes to abdominal and thoracic lymph nodes; and carcinoma of the gastric cardia mainly metasta-sizes to abdominal lymph nodes and lateral esophageal lymph nodes. Tumor diameter, the depth of tumor in-vasion, vascular tumor embolus and the status of tumor residues are correlated to lymphatic metastasis.