Abstract: Objective : To investigate the role and clinicopathological significance of RECK and MMP-9 mRNA expression in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods : We collected 62 samples of ESCC tissue, 31 samples of adjacent atypical hyperplastic epithelia and 62 samples of normal esophageal epithelia inAnyang Cancer Hospital. The expression of RECK and MMP-9 was detected with in situ hybridization.Chi-square test and Spearman correlation analysis were used to analyze the results. Results : The expressionlevels of RECK mRNA in ESCC tissues, adjacent atypical hyperplasia epithelia and normal esophageal epithelia were 45.2%, 61.3%, and 82.3%, respectively, with a significant difference (χ²=19.186, P<0.05). For ESCC,the expression level of RECK mRNA was significantly related to the degree of differentiation, depth of invasion and lymph node metastasis. The positive rate of MMP-9 protein expression in cancer tissues and mucosa adjacent to cancer were lower than in normal mucosa, with a significant difference. For ESCC, a significant difference was found in MMP-9 mRNA expression among patients with different degree of differentiationand different depth of invasion. MMP-9 mRNA expression was significantly different between patients withand without lymph node metastasis. For ESCC patients, the expression rates of RECK and MMP-9 mRNAwere not correlated with age or gender. The expression of RECK mRNA was negatively correlated withMMP-9 expression (γ=-0.348, P<0.01). Conclusion : Decreased expression of RECK and increased expression of MMP-9 may be correlated with the development, invasion and metastasis of esophageal squamouscell carcinoma.