Abstract: Objective : To investigate the histogenesis and biological characteristics and fac-tors influencing prognosis of the small cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Methods : Expression of five protein which consist of CK, NSE, CHr-A, Syn, and CD56 was examined immunohistochemi-cally in 63 cases of the small cell carcinoma of the esophagus. Results : Sixty-three cases of the small cell carcinoma of the esophagus was divided into two types, ie pure small cell (28/63)and compound small cell (35/63). The result of immunohistochemistry showed: CK in 41.38, NSE in 36.58, Syn in 90.58, CHr-A in 60.38 and CD56 in 50.88. In statistics,the expression of five an-tibodies in pure small cell carcinoma and in compound small cell carcinoma is undistinguishable. The bulk of the tumor and the depthe of tumor invasion and the positive end to end of the tu-mor and lymphnode metastasis were the major determinants in fluencing long-term survial. Con-clusion : Small cell carcinoma of the esophagus is a kind of high malignant tumors, which highly express neuroendocrine antigene. The histophathologic origin is still uncertain. But this study has been adoptive to the epicyted origin.