Abstract: Objective: To investigates the inhibitory effects of Bcl-XL antisense oligodeoxynu-cleotide on growth of human esophageal carcinoma in nude mice. Methods: The nude mice model car-ried esophageal cancer cell line EC9706 was constructed. When the mean volume of tumor reached50mm 3, the nude mice were consecutively treated by ASODN for fifteen days. The tumor's volume was measured and the histopathological change of tumor observed using HE staining. The Bcl- XL gene and protein expressions was respectively detected, using RT-PCR and Western Blot. And apoptotic changewas observed by in situ cell death detection. Results: Growth of human esophageal carcinoma was sig-nificantly inhibited in the ASODN therapy group. After treatment, the tumor volume in the controlgroup, the non-sense oligonucleotide (N- ODN) group and the ASODN group was (1062.8± 599.7) mm 3,(853.0± 327.9) mm 3 and (267.7± 152.3) mm 3, respectively. There was a significant difference in the A-SODN group as compared with that in the control group and the N- ODN group (P<0.05). By the meantime, the expressions of Bcl- XL mRNA and protein were decreased, and the apoptosis of the tumor cells was increased significantly. Conclusion: Bcl- XL ASODN can effectively inhibit the growth of tu-mor in nude mice. It would offer an important theoretic foundation for the gene therapy of esophageal carcinoma.