Abstract: Objective :To investigate the relationship between EphA2 gene and the occurrence, Aswell as invasion and metastasis of esophageal carcinoma. Methods :The expression of EphA2 mRNAwas detected using RT-PCR and the EphA2 protein was detected by immunohistochemical method (SP)in esophageal cancer tissues and their normal mucosa tissues. Results :The expression of EphA2 mR-NA showed no difference between esophageal cancer tissues and normal mucosa, and it did not ap-peared to be correlated with differentiation of cancer tissues, the depth of infiltration and lymph nodemetastasis (P>0.05). The expression of EphA2 protein was significantly higher in cancer tissues than innormal mucosa tissues (P<0.05). The expressions of EphA2 protein in the deeper invasion group andthe group with lymph- node metastasis were significantly higher than those in the superficial invasiongroup and the group without lymph node metastasis (P<0.05). It did not appeared to be correlated withdifferentiation of cancer tissues (P>0.05). Conclusion :The occurrence of esophageal carcinoma and theformation of invasion and metastasis may be related to the overexpression of EphA2 protein but not tothe level of mRNA,which may results from the up-regulation in translational level or the increased pro-tein stability.